


From Faerûn (With Love)

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Childhood Friends, Curses, F/M, Fae Magic, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pen Pals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23281042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: When Kravitz was in 6th grade his school set up a pen pal program, matching them with students who spoke Elvish. It was a simple program, they would write their pen pals letters in elvish as practice, and their pen pals would write them back in common. None of the pairings had lasted until the next year when it wasn't a requirement anymore.None, except for his and Barry's. They'd been matched up with siblings, a pair of twins.That had been ten years ago, and Taako and Lup had never stopped writing them. Him and Barry had never stopped responding. He could say with certainty that Taako and Lup were their best friends. So when they mention possibly getting kicked out of their family's homeagainit's not hard to throw out an invite for the two to come visit some time, if they ever need a place to stay.Kravitz just wasn't expecting a knock on his door as soon as he put the letter in the mailbox.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 406
Kudos: 1111





	1. Chapter 1

It was Thursday, and if anyone asked Kravitz was not rushing home. He was walking home at the same speed he did every Thursday, which was a normal human speed to walk. He was an active guy, or at least he tried to be, and sometimes he liked to get a light run in after work.

‘Sometimes’ specifically being on Thursdays, but that wasn’t important.

Before heading inside he checked the mail, although some people might have described it as him making a beeline for the mailbox. It was just habit, he always made sure to check the mail on Thursdays, because he always knew that it would be more than just junk and bills waiting for him.

There were two nearly identical envelopes inside, and he grabbed them both before heading in. The only difference between them was the single word they had written on the front. No return address or anything of the like. On one was his own name, and on the other was Barry’s.

He put Barry’s letter down on the table by the front door, he would know where to pick it up once he got home. This had been the routine for a while, ever since he’d gotten this new job. It kept him later than Kravitz’s did, which meant he was always the first one home now a days.

Taking his own letter Kravitz headed to the living room, dropping everything he’d been carrying from work and settling down on the couch. Taking a moment, he inspected the letter before opening it. The address was written in quick, scrawled handwriting on the back like an afterthought, which wasn’t where it was supposed to go anyway. He’d commented on this, but the response had been that it always got to him anyway, so what did it matter? Kravitz couldn’t argue with that one too much.

Finally opening the letter, Kravitz couldn’t help the dumb smile on his face as he started to read the light purple parchment inside.

_ Krav! _

_ Okay so first things first before you get any fucking ideas I must make it perfectly clear that there is no way hotdogs are a real thing that are popular and widely consumed. You almost had me when you talked about putting them on a grill or roasting over a fire, but you really expect me to believe people just throw those things in a microwave and slurp down a wiggly soggy tube of mystery pork slurry? That is regional at best and an actual goddamn crime at worst. _

_ With that out of the way, tell Barold I said congrats on the new job. I know Lup already said it too but she insisted I repeat it so he’s double congratulated or whatever. Which on job shit, how’s things been at yours? Still working at your mom’s place? You haven’t asked my opinion but I still think you should try and branch out with the music thing some more. Your shit’s good, could charm a fae right out of a fairy ring if you tried. _

_ So uh, this one’s gonna be a little short. This is the part of the letter where I bring everyone’s mood down and let you know that Lup and I are probably gonna be out of a place to stay soon. Don’t freak out, it’s nothing serious. Kinda pissed off the uncle we were staying with is all, and now we’re awaiting judgment. Lulu and I have been trying to set up our own place anyway, but you know how family is. Always gotta have the final say in everything. _

_ Hopefully this just speeds up the process and we can be out on our own. Real fucking tired of living by their rules. If we got our own place maybe we could be real sneaky and bring you and Barry down for a weekend or something. It’d be cool to actually see you in person. See if you both look like nerds as much as you sound like nerds ;P _

_ Talk to ya soon, _

_ Taako (From Faerûn~) _

Kravitz’s smile had certainly dipped some from when he got into the meat of the letter, but it wasn’t completely gone. This wasn’t the first time Taako had mentioned getting kicked out of a family member’s home. It worried him every time, but it had always worked out alright in the past.

Kravitz put the letter aside, pulling out a piece of paper to begin composing a reply.

The pen pal set up had started in sixth grade. It’d been an awkward time all around in his house. His mother had just adopted Barry, and the two weren’t exactly fond of each other yet. It was maybe more on Kravitz’s end than Barry’s, but thankfully that hadn’t lasted too long, and they were certainly close now. At the time though, Kravitz tried to get out of spending time with him whenever possible, much to their mother’s frustration. 

They had Elven together though, which to this day Kravitz was certain his mother had called the school and specifically requested. In an effort to ignore Barry then though, Kravitz had spent a lot of time actually paying attention to the class.

And the class had decided to set up a pen pal program, matching them up with students in the Elven Country Faerun. It was simple, they were matched up to a student in a Faerun Common Class, and they wrote their pen pal’s letters in Elven, while the elf students wrote them letters in common. The first few letters had topics for them, but afterwards they were allowed to talk to the other student about whatever they wanted.

He’d been paired up with a student named Taako. The first letter was supposed to be about who they were and what they hoped to learn about their new pen pal. Taako’s had followed that rather well, and his common was better than Kravitz had expected.

Taako’s letter ended with him asking for his new penpal to find out which student got his sister’s letter.

Kravitz had been very annoyed when he realized that the student to get Lup’s letter was of course, Barry.

He could admit now that having partnered up with Lup and Taako had probably helped Kravitz warm up to Barry much faster than he would have otherwise. The twins were excited to learn they had also been matched up with siblings, no matter how many times Kravitz had emphasized adopted in his letters.

Most of the pairs had died off by the end of the year, and Kravitz was sure that none of them continued by the time the next year had started. None except for him and Barry. Every time they sent a letter, Taako and Lup wrote back, and when the school year ended they asked for their address, so they could keep sending letters. That’s when they started showing up on Thursdays. Taako and Lup hadn’t been able to give a proper address, instead insisting on a PO box. They moved around with relatives a lot, and insisted this was easiest.

And they just never stopped writing. If anything, their letters had only gotten longer over the years. This one Taako had sent was the shortest by far in a long time, that alone made Kravitz a little worried. He must’ve really been pressed for time to write.

He sat sitting over the coffee table for a long while, staring down at his own blank paper trying to figure out what to say. Usually it wasn’t hard to talk to Taako, not in the slightest, but right now he was drawing a blank.

Taako had mentioned them coming to visit someday. Kravitz couldn’t help getting hung up on that detail. He’d talked to the elf about practically everything under the sun, but  _ that _ topic, that one had never come up. Kravitz had wanted to throw out the idea, on multiple occasions. He’d wanted to meet Taako for, god, almost a decade now. He always backed out at the last minute. Somehow, it had always felt like a taboo. Like inviting the twins over would quickly spill into so much more, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if he was ready to throw open those floodgates yet.

Taako had opened that door though. And now that it was open it was all Kravitz could think about. None of them had ever exchanged pictures, Taako and Lup said their guardians wouldn’t allow it. Their guardians were very strict, and the twins hated living with them and made note of it whenever possible. The only reason they’d even been allowed to start the pen pal program at the time had been because they’d been staying with an aunt at the time who, in Taako’s words, ‘actually had a heart.’

Before Kravitz could get anything down on paper he heard the front door open, and a moment later Barry came into the living room. He had a positively smitten look on his face and was already reading Lup’s letter, not even bothering to sit down before opening it. That was another thing.

Barry was  _ absolutely _ in love with Lup.

Taako had assured Kravitz in his own letters that the feeling was definitely mutual on his sister’s end. They were both just waiting to see how long it would take for the two to own up to it.

Kravitz was able to guess pretty easily what sort of things were in Lup’s letter this time around, from the way Barry’s face shifted from its typical goofy grin to a worried frown, his brow furrowed in concern.

“Did Taako mention-”

“Yeah, probably getting kicked out again,” Kravitz cut in before he could finish. Barry sighed, finally moving to sit down on the couch.

“Lup sounded… really worried. She didn’t give a lot of specifics, but she said she thinks they might have really fucked up this time,” Barry said, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that. He went back to Taako’s letter, and he wasn’t getting that same tone from his at all. He guessed that wasn’t too surprising though, he knew Taako wasn’t great at taking things seriously. He hated making Kravitz worry. The fact that he’d said ‘it’s nothing serious’ was probably a dead giveaway that it was in fact very serious.

“Taako’s hoping they can move into their own place altogether,” Kravitz said, and Barry nodded at that. It was certainly what the two of them were hoping the twins would do one of these days, get away from that family that clearly didn’t care about them. “He mentioned getting us up there to visit if they actually manage it,” he added in as casual a tone as possible, and Barry’s head shot up at that.

“Wait, really?” he asked, looking like he thought to try and temper his excitement a moment too late.

“Yes, I mean nothing concrete yet obviously,” he said, and Barry quickly nodded.

_ “Obviously,” _ he parroted.

“But it wouldn’t hurt to let them know we would be thrilled to if we ever get the chance,” Kravitz added.

“Yeah no of course,” Barry agreed. He stood up after that, taking Lup’s letter again and rereading it. Kravitz started writing his letter now, feeling a bit more certain on where to take it. Insisting to Taako that hotdogs  _ are _ in fact a popular food item that was often microwaved, and then going into the rest of the topics.

When he got to the part about visiting, he paused. Barry was in the kitchen now, getting dinner started. They were both horrible cooks, but they still had to eat. Barry usually waited to write his response until he went to his room for the night, which was why he usually had cooking duty on Thursdays.

“Barry?” he called, getting a somewhat affirmative hum in response. Kravitz didn’t look away from his paper as he spoke. “We should- do you think it would be out of line if we like, invited them over here? If they’re worried about getting kicked out. I’m sure they have other options before getting on a plane and flying to another country, but…” he trailed off. Barry had come out of the kitchen by now, looking serious as he nodded.

“It wouldn’t hurt to throw the offer out there. I certainly wouldn’t mind, and- just so they know they’re always welcome, if worse ever comes to worse,” Barry said. There were a lot of things they didn’t agree on, but Kravitz was very thankful that they saw eye to eye on this topic.

“Right,” he said, continuing his letter.

_ I know you said not to worry about it, and Taako I promise that I’m not. Barry and I just wanted to let you know that if you both ever need a place to stay, our home is always open. Or we could visit you in Faerun, either way. Just don’t be afraid to reach out if you need it, we’re here for you. _

Kravitz reread the paragraph, trying to decide if it sounded sincere enough. Or if it sounded  _ too _ sincere. They’d been best friends for years now, but Kravitz didn’t want to freak him out.

Before he could over think it, Kravitz quickly signed the letter, folding it up and placing it in an envelope. He put the PO box address on the front, signing Taako’s name on the back, and headed out to place it in the mailbox. Usually he waited until the next morning to put it out, while he was leaving for work. Right now though, he just wanted it out of his sights before he could work himself up.

As soon as he was back inside there was a knock at the door behind him.

“I’ve got it!” he called to Barry, who was still in the kitchen. He’d barely had time to wonder how whoever it was had managed to get to the door so fast without him noticing them while he was out in the yard before he opened it and saw them. The two of them.

They weren’t human. Kravitz was fairly sure they weren’t elves either. They were tall, with dark skin that shimmered blue where the porch light shined on them. They both had long, light blond hair, or was it silver? Their ears were long too, much longer than elves usually were, and completely adorned with earrings. Their eyes stuck out the most as otherworldly, bright shining green with the whites much,  _ much _ darker than they should be.

They were absolutely beautiful, and they were both just standing there, staring at him. They almost looked  _ nervous. _

“Um, can I help you?” Kravitz managed to find his voice and ask after what felt like an eternity. One of the, who had their hair worn loose and had a brilliant red cloak drawn around their shoulders, elbowed the other one in the side. That one, hair in a braid and wearing a hat that looked like the night sky full of stars, grimaced before starting to speak.

“Uh, yeah maybe. Ummm, Krav? I’m going to guess Kravitz please tell me you’re Kravitz,” they said, and yeah okay, definitely nervous. Also, he had no idea how these… people, knew his name.

“Yes, that’s me,” he said, and the one that had spoken actually grinned at that.

His teeth were a lot sharper than Kravitz expected.

“Oh hell yeah!” he said, before quickly bringing his excitement back down again, coughing into his hand. “I mean, hey! It’s uh, cool to finally meet you,” he said, and the other being was starting to try and look behind Kravitz now.

“Where’s my boy? Don’t tell me he’s still at work,” she said, sounding disappointed by the idea and Kravitz was  _ very _ confused and starting to get very worried.

“I don’t- who are you people?” he asked, barely managing to keep himself from asking  _ what _ they were as well. That seemed like it would be rude. The one that had been trying to apparently sneak in past him suddenly stopped, quickly turning to the other.

“I thought you said in the letter-” she started in a whispered hiss, but they were too close for Kravitz  _ not _ to hear them. The mention of a letter though made Kravitz’s stomach drop. There was no way…

“He did! We never sent pictures though, he just doesn’t recognize us,” the one with the hat insisted. Kravitz was starting to get an idea of what was going on here, and he had no idea how to handle it. He didn’t get a lot of time to process it as the two turned back towards him, smiling with teeth that were still much too sharp.

“Right! So, sorry about the short notice, things went a bit more south than either of us could have predicted-” the one with the robe elbowed him in the side again, “than  _ I _ could have predicted,” he corrected with a sigh. “But you said we could stop by if we ever needed a place to stay.”

Kravitz didn’t need an introduction at this point. He was already certain he knew exactly who these two were.

“I’m Taako, this is Lup. It’s…  _ real _ fucking cool to finally meet you,” Taako said, and all Kravitz could think to do was nod in agreement as he slowly took in the situation.

Their pen pals, their best friends for nearly a decade, weren’t elves.

They were  _ fae. _

“Hey Kravitz, who’s at the door?” Barry came walking out. Kravitz had nearly forgotten about him, flinching at the unexpected question. Not sure what else to do, Kravitz stepped out of the doorway so that his brother could take in the same sight he had. Lup’s face had split into a huge grin at Barry’s voice, and if he wasn’t still reeling Kravitz probably would have laughed at the pointed look Taako gave him. Instead, he managed to smile weakly before turning to Barry.

“It’s- Lup and Taako came to visit?” he said, the words coming out more as a question than anything. As soon as he finished, before Barry could properly take it in, Lup was sprinting into the house.

“Barry!” she shouted, and Kravitz winced when she actually managed to knock him to the ground with her hug. She quickly picked him back up, grinning and talking all the while. “Holy shit, it’s really you! You’re such a nerd! I knew you were a nerd but you are  _ such a fucking nerd _ I can’t believe it!”

For his part, Barry was staring at her in open mouthed shock. Which… honestly was kind of what Kravitz expected Barry to do whenever he got to meet Lup anyway.

Taako was laughing, finally coming in as well. Kravitz shut the door behind him, feeling like he was working on autopilot. His pen pal watched Lup and Barry for a moment longer before turning towards him with a sympathetic smile.

“Thanks again, it’s- you’re sure this is cool? We totally get it if it’s not cool,” he said, and Kravitz very quickly shook his head.

“No! No it’s absolutely cool! This was just… a surprise. We meant it though, it’s- we’re happy to have you,” he insisted. Taako actually looked rather relieved at that. Kravitz turned back to the other two at that, and from the looks of it Barry was starting to get control of his faculties back.

“You’re beautiful,” he blurted out.

Oooor not.

Lup stopped cold in her excited chatter, her ears sticking straight up and her already dark skin getting even darker. Barry looked like a tomato. Kravitz almost felt bad for them. Then Taako snorted, grabbing Kravitz’s arm and pulling him further into the house.

“Alright, how about a tour of the place?” he asked, and both Lup and Barry looked extremely relieved for the distraction. Kravitz couldn’t blame Taako for taking pity on them, despite how amusing it was to watch. 

“Right! Right a tour. Don’t worry if shit’s not clean, we didn’t exactly give you guys any heads up,” Lup added, seeming eager to jump onto the new topic. Kravitz had just been thinking about how long it had been since they’d cleaned the guest room, and the reassurance wasn’t doing much to help with that. Hopefully they could get in there to clean it some before they needed to sleep.  _ If _ they needed to sleep.

“Are you guys cooking?” Taako asked suddenly, and this time Barry nodded.

“Yeah uh, I was in the middle of making dinner,” he said, and immediately Taako was moving past him and into the kitchen.

“Nope, we’re not doing that. I am not about to risk you two feeding me  _ hotdogs, _ if you’re still claiming that’s a real thing,” Taako said, and Kravitz quickly followed him into the kitchen.

“That’s not- you really don’t have to Taako,” he tried, but the fae shook his head, his earrings clinking together and the light catching them and shining out all around the walls.

“Consider it thanks for letting us stay here. Don’t even worry about it,” he said, and a little reluctantly Kravitz nodded.

“I suppose if you insist,” he said, and Taako gave him a grin at that. The look made Kravitz’s breath catch, although he tried his best to hide it.

“I really do insist,” Taako said, and all Kravitz could do was nod at that.

He poked fun at Barry for his obvious crush all the time, made jokes and bets about him and Lup with Taako.

None of that changed the fact that Kravitz was just as hopelessly in love with Taako. Apparently finding out that he was a fae didn’t change that one bit.

There was no way this was going to end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i got wrapped up in this idea and have been unable to focus on my longer fics, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to knock out this idea. Three chapters is a rough estimate, we'll see how it ends up working out. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	2. Chapter 2

Taako and Lup were at their house.

It was something Kravitz had looked forward to and imagined ever since he was young, even if he hadn’t actually shared those thoughts with anyone. They were their best friends, easily their longest lasting friendship, and they could finally actually  _ talk _ to them. Could finally see them and let Taako hold his arm whenever he wanted to.

Taako and Lup were fae.

That one was taking a bit longer to process. He hadn’t ever considered that possibility, mainly because he hadn’t  _ known _ it was a possibility. He didn’t think fae were  _ real _ for one thing. Or at least if they ever had been real, as elves liked to claim they were descended from them, they certainly weren’t around anymore.

Kravitz didn’t know a lot about fae, but what he did know said they were dangerous. That they didn’t do things the same way mortals did, they had their own sets of morals that were impossible to understand. They were tricky and deadly and you should never,  _ ever _ trust one.

He’d written Taako letters in tears when his pet bird got out when he was 14 and was killed by one of the neighborhood cats. Taako’s response had been a genuine and fumbling attempt at consoling him and a set of beautiful feathered earrings. Kravitz still had those earrings, and despite how often he wore them they were still as pristine as the day he took them out of the envelope. Taako encouraged his music, and Kravitz had encouraged his cooking. They joked and made bets about how long it would take before Lup and Barry finally confessed their feelings for each other, and sometimes, on rare occasions, Taako would let his walls down. Would talk about how much he missed his aunt, how he didn’t know what to do with himself whenever their current custodians would force him and Lup to be apart, sometimes for weeks at a time. How scared he was sometimes that he’d never find anyone other than Lup who would understand him.

Every time Kravitz had wanted to reply with  _ I understand you. I love you. _ He never did, it would have been too much.

His idea of the twins did not fit with everything he’d heard of fae, and he was still trying to work it all together into something that made sense in his head.

He and Barry waited around while Taako and Lup insisted on cooking them dinner. It was a little surreal, watching the two work. Taako always talked about how much he loved to cook, but it was something else entirely to see it in action.

If Kravitz had any doubts about what they were before, those went out the window watching them. If the graceful, impossible synchronicity the two had wasn’t a dead giveaway, the magic certainly was. It wasn’t anything blatant, it didn’t seem like the two were trying to show off. Kravitz was paying enough attention to see it though, to watch as the frozen ingredients they pulled out turned fresh in their hands. Sometimes, when Kravitz was fairly sure Taako thought he wasn’t looking, whatever he grabbed would turn into something else entirely.

The food finished faster than it had any right to, and despite watching the whole process Kravitz was still a little stunned when a bowl of stew was pushed into his hands. Taako looked almost giddy with excitement as he handed it over.

“Tell me how that does ya. Be honest, I didn’t wait a fucking decade to get you to try my food for you to spare my feelings,” Taako said. Kravitz chuckled a little at that, looking down at the absolutely fantastic smelling stew. He was pretty sure nothing that smelled this good had ever been made in this house before.

Kravitz could vaguely remember a warning about fae and not taking food from them. This might very well be a bad idea.

He looked back up at Taako’s eager face, small cracks of nervousness starting to show through. Giving him another smile, he tried the stew without any hesitation.

“Holy  _ shit _ Taako!” he said immediately, not caring about nearly burning his tongue as he shoved more into his mouth. From what he could tell, Barry was having a very similar reaction.

“Take it you approve then?” he asked, and Kravitz quickly nodded.

“Yes, of course! This is  _ incredible _ ,” he said in between spoonfuls. The proud smile on Taako’s face was nice, and somehow Kravitz was starting to get used to the teeth.

“Better than hot dogs?” he asked.

“I never said those were  _ good _ Taako! Just that people eat them, people will eat anything!” he said, which actually got a laugh out of the fae. His laugh was… it made Kravitz’s chest feel like it was fluttering, was the best way he could describe it. He couldn’t tell if there was something legitimately ethereal about it or if Kravitz was just like this. “But if you must know, yes, a thousand times better than the best hot dog imaginable,” he added.

“It fucking better be,” Taako said. With that the twins finally grabbed their own bowls, and the four of them moved back to the living room to finish eating. There was a moment as they all sat eating where it was quiet, and Kravitz could try and gather his thoughts.

He had no idea where to even start though.

_ “So,” _ Lup said once the silence had started to stretch from comfortable to awkward. “We figured you two probably have some  _ questions,” _ she added, and she wasn’t wrong. He exchanged a quick glance at Barry, who looked just as lost on where to go from here as Kravitz was.

“You uh, you guys sure did get here fast. Not complaining! Just uh, yeah, things broke bad back home?” Barry managed to ask, and Kravitz was relieved at not having to be the one to ask the first question. Lup sighed and Taako avoided meeting anyone’s eyes by scraping at the bottom of his bowl.

“Yeah, that’s a long story,” she said, putting her own bowl down on the coffee table before sitting back some. “But I guess to start off we should probably like, apologize? To you both, for um, well it wasn’t  _ lying-” _

“Sorry for catfishing you guys,” Taako cut in. “I mean, we never  _ said _ we were elves.”

“Maybe, but we never said we  _ weren’t  _ elves either, and it was kinda implied,” Lup argued, but Taako scoffed and waved his hand as if brushing her argument aside.

“Implied doesn’t mean shit. They could have asked,” he insisted.

“It’s alright,” Kravitz cut in, because he didn’t think he was  _ upset _ at them not saying anything. Confused and surprised, but not upset. “I’m not going to lie any say it didn’t uh, take me off guard, but it’s fine. It’s- everything else you’ve said is still true, right?” he asked. They both started nodding before stopping suddenly, identical looks of uncertainty of their faces.

“We didn’t  _ lie,” _ Lup insisted, which Kravitz was starting to think might be a reoccurring theme here as they got everything sorted out.

“We just put it in ways we thought you were understand easier is all. Like, 'uncle' instead of 'Grand Juror of the High Court',” Taako added. Kravitz supposed that was fair enough. He had no idea how things actually worked with them, considering the obvious.

“So uh, just like, getting everything out in the open, you guys are fae? I didn’t- no one thought they even exist anymore,” Barry said, and Kravitz was very thankful his brother’s brain seemed to have recovered from the stupor of meeting Lup. The twins shared a look at that, it was only for a second but it felt like they were having a whole silent conversation in that moment. As far as he knew they probably were.

“That’s because you’re not supposed to know. No one is, really,” Lup said, and Taako nodded.

_ “That’s  _ kinda how we shit the bed here,” he added. Kravitz couldn’t help but frown at that, not sure he was liking the conclusions he was coming to.

“Wait, if no one’s allowed to know how are you here?” he asked, quickly continuing “Not that we don’t want you here. I just don’t want you guys to get in trouble over us.”

From the quick glance the twins shared, Kravitz had a feeling that it might already be too late for that.

“Yeah, okay I guess we should probably get to the meat of the issue here,” Lup said, looking a bit reluctant as she spoke. Taako started picking at the edge of the sofa, and Kravitz was pretty sure his fingers were longer than they were supposed to be. Or, considering he was fae they were as long as they should be, it was just longer than Kravitz was used to.

“So uh, we weren’t just kicked out of where we were staying,” Taako muttered.

“We were  _ kinda _ kicked out of the whole court,” Lup continued. Kravitz had a feeling he didn’t fully understand what that meant, but it sounded bad. “We didn’t know where to go, but then Taako got your letter saying we could crash here, so uh, here we are,” she finished.

“Right, you got that…  _ really _ fast,” Kravitz said, and Taako actually looked sheepish now. His long ears were pointed down and he wasn’t looking directly at anyone in particular.

“We put a portal in your mailbox,” he mumbled. Taako must’ve noticed the way his head instantly turned to look at the door, because he quickly continued. “It only takes mail addressed to us. We’re not like, stealing your specialty coupons or anything. The PO box we gave you? It’s actually kinda like, a sigil,” he explained.

“That’s incredible!” Barry said, and by now they had all finished eating, instead absorbed in the conversation. “How did you manage it? Is it something you could actually teach?” he asked, and a grin started spreading over Lup’s face at that.

“Doesn’t hurt to try,” she said, and Kravitz wasn’t too sure how true that was. He didn’t try and shut down the idea any though, he kind of doubted he could. Barry was always one to get carried away in his own thing, no matter how much Kravitz said he really should have stopped three hours ago.

“So uh, this court?” Kravitz asked instead, changing the subject back to what seemed to be the big thing here. Sure, he’d heard of a fae court before, but not in any  _ real _ sense. It was just children’s stories, things to tell your kids to keep them from wandering around in the woods at night.

Except Taako and Lup were in the same room as him. Taako was sitting so close that Kravitz could have shifted to press his leg up against the fae’s if he wanted to, or stretch and wrap an arm around his shoulders.

(He really,  _ really _ wanted to.)

“What does it mean if you're kicked out? Practically I suppose, are you guys going to be okay?” he asked, hoping this wasn’t prying or anything. He just had no idea how any of this worked and wanted to be sure they would be alright.

“We’re fine. Better off I’d say,” Taako said, a stubbornness to his voice that made Kravitz question whether or not that was entirely true.

“The long and short of it is that we can’t go back. Like, ever. Basically like a billion years ago fae decided that they were better than everyone else and didn’t want to deal with anyone else’s shit, so the court built a whole other dimension for us to hang out in,” Lup explained, and Kravitz appreciated her ability to actually go into some detail.

“It’s boring as shit though! We can’t  _ do _ anything or  _ talk _ to anyone, it’s all just peaceful magic and ballrooms and fake bullshit,” Taako complained loudly. Lup nodded in agreement, and honestly neither of them seemed all that upset by the loss of their former home.

“Yeah, when it came to choose whether to follow their rules or leave, it wasn’t that hard of a choice to make,” Lup said. Barry might have missed how her eyes lingered on him for a moment longer than they needed to, but Kravitz definitely noticed. Then she picked up a glass of water, looking almost too casual as she brought it to her lips. “Except for the whole immortality thing,” she added, speaking fast.

“The what now?” Barry asked, voicing Kravitz’s thoughts exactly. Lup didn’t answer, instead shoveling more stew into her mouth. He’d been  _ sure _ that she’d already finished her bowl, so he wasn’t sure where this new stew was coming from.

“Fae are functionally immortal when in the Court. They made it real fucking clear that shit wouldn’t keep if we left,” Taako explained. All Kravitz could do for a moment was stare at the fae, a little dumbstruck.

“What rule was so bad that you’d give up  _ that _ to get away from it?” Kravitz asked, the question leaving his mouth before he could think about it. He only realized it might have been a sensitive subject when several long seconds went by with neither of the twins answering his question.

“So, you guys said something about a tour?” Lup asked finally. Kravitz nodded, quickly taking the hint.

“Right, got pretty distracted there. The place isn't exactly huge so this shouldn’t take too long,” he said, standing up from the couch. Taako and Lup quickly followed suit, and Barry began gathering up all the bowls from dinner.

With that they started walking the two fae through the house, pointing out anything important in each room as they went. They’d already seen the living room and the kitchen pretty thoroughly, so those two went by fast. When they headed into his and Barry’s rooms it was obvious that the twins were itching to get in there and look at as much stuff as possible, which was exactly why Kravitz had shuffled them along pretty fast there. Hopefully they’d get a chance to clean up some things before the twins started getting into anything there.

Kravitz couldn’t help but wince a little as he opened the door to the guest bedroom. Him and Barry didn’t actually have a lot of guests, it was mostly used as an office that also happened to have a bed in it. There were papers and boxes all strewn through the room and stacked in the corners, a few even left on the bed. The whole place was not in any sort of state that Kravitz would feel comfortable making anyone stay in it, let alone Taako and Lup.

“And uh, this is the guest room, sorry we don’t have anything better. It’s- we’ll clean it up before tonight,” he tried to insist. Taako shook his head though, the two starting into the room. It looked even smaller with them both inside.

“No, this is perfect, we can make this work,” he said, and Kravitz highly doubted that.

“It’s not a big deal. It’ll take maybe an hour at most to get rid of the worst of the-” he tried to argue, but then Taako suddenly had a hand on his shoulder and the words died in Kravitz’s throat.

“Not to brag my dude, but we got like, magic and shit. No need for us to get even more indebted to you than we already are,” he said, and it was hard to argue with that one. Kravitz had never imagined that he would  _ have _ to argue against ‘literally have magic powers.’

Debt, that was definitely another thing that had come up in legends. Never get indebted to a fae, you never know what they’ll ask of you. He wondered if it worked the other way too, fae having to follow through if they felt they owed you a debt.

He hoped not. He didn’t like the idea of either of the twins feeling they had to do anything because they  _ owed _ them.

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” he relented. With that they left the guest room, and after quickly showing the two fae their rather meager backyard, the four of them ended up back in the living room.

“So yeah, that’s everything. It’s not much, but you’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like,” Kravitz said, and he could only imagine how much their mediocre fixer-upper paled in comparison to the fae courts the twins were used to. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing though, from the sound of it they had wanted to get away from all of that.

“We’ll be sure to hold you to that,” Lup said with a grin. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move, telling the twins they could stay for as long as they liked. Kravitz was pretty sure he wouldn’t have any objections though.

“Right, there’s just uh, one problem that I can think of,” Barry said, which kind of surprised Kravitz. He guessed his brother notice, quickly continuing. “Not with you staying here, it’s fine here, more than fine, really! But, I was thinking if you two ever wanted to like,  _ leave _ the house, like at all, you’ll probably draw a lot of attention. Like that,” he explained, which, right. Kravitz hadn’t been thinking about that too much, although he probably should have been.

The twins quickly shared a look, seeming to have another silent conversation before coming to some sort of agreement.

“Shouldn’t be an issue,” Lup said, and Kravitz couldn’t keep from blinking when a shining glimmer covered the two. When it faded they had changed, were still recognizable, but their other-worldly, fae features dampened. The blue shimmer on their skin was replaced with light freckles, and their iridescent almost silver hair settling on a very light blond. Their irises were still bright green, but the whites were actually  _ white _ now, and when Taako smiled at him his teeth were mostly flat.

They were still some of the most beautiful people Kravitz had ever seen, but they could pass as exceptionally enchanting elves.

“Oh. I guess not,” Barry said, sounding a little dumbstruck. Kravitz couldn’t really blame him.

“Why didn’t you show up like this? Instead of revealing everything to us?” Kravitz asked, and Taako frowned at the question.

“We already apologized for catfishing you guys and now you’re asking why we didn’t just catfish you  _ harder?” _ he asked.

“What Taako  _ means _ is that we wanted to be honest,” Lup said, which was fair enough. “So uh, I guess that covers everything. What now? You guys both have work tomorrow, right?” she asked next. ‘What now’ was a very good question, one Kravitz didn’t really have an answer to. He’d spent so long trying his best not to get lost imagining what it would be like to actually meet the twins. He’d told himself that when the day finally did come,  _ if _ it ever came, he’d have plenty of time to figure out things beforehand.

He’d certainly been wrong on that front.

“Yes, but it’s not that late yet or anything, we don’t have to go to sleep yet,” Kravitz said. He didn’t think he could sleep, even if he wanted to, hell even if he actually  _ needed _ to.

“Lulu, you should go show Barry how we did the portal thingy,” Taako said suddenly, his tone casual as anything. Kravitz was pretty sure their ears moved more than regular elves did, even with this disguise on. Right now Lup’s were pointed back, and she seemed to be giving Taako a very suspicious look.

“Sure, I mean, don’t see why I can’t just show him right here,” she said. Taako shrugged, moving to go sit on the couch and tossing his hat onto the coffee table.

“Just figured it’d be safest to try it outside. I’ve got no idea how humans are with magic, don’t wanna have him try something and blow the damn house up,” he said. Kravitz felt like for any sane person, the prospect of blowing up a whole house would maybe turn them off from whatever venture. So of course Barry just looked excited and intrigued by the possibility.

“You think it could manage to blow up? Most people think magic doesn’t even exist anymore, I figured that if it was going to go wrong the worst would be that nothing happened,” he said. Lup shrugged at that, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Maybe? Most of you think it’s not real because you don’t know how to do it worth shit. If you had some decent instruction you  _ might _ manage to blow something up,” she said, and then proceeded to grin at Barry. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Yeah, alright. The backyard should be fine, there’s a pretty tall fence,” Barry said, already starting towards the back door. He paused before actually leaving the room though, turning back towards him and Taako. “Do uh, you guys wanna come with?” he asked, and Kravitz tried to ignore the deeper question in the look Barry was giving him.

“I’m good to chill here, how about you Krav?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“I think I’m good not blowing up,” he said. Barry chuckled and Lup rolled her eyes.

“Suit yourselves,” she said, the two of them heading towards the back now.

“Try not to blow up my brother! I’ve only got the one,” Kravitz called out after them. Lup shouted back an affirmative in elvish before they heard the back door open and close.

And then it was just him and Taako.

“We’re gonna have to rework the bet,” Taako said after a moment, and immediately Kravitz chuckled. Going to sit down on the couch, he suddenly had no idea what a normal distance to sit near someone was. He hoped it wasn’t too close. Kind of felt like it was maybe not close enough.

“I mean, a bet’s a bet. You said it wouldn’t happen for another three years. Don’t see any reason to rework that now,” he said, and Taako pouted at that.

“Yeah, but I didn’t take into account the idea of literally moving in with you guys! It’s still perfectly fair, you can rework your bet too. We can  _ refine _ it,” he insisted. It felt like a smile was permanently stuck on Kravitz’s face by this point. Everything with the twins showing up like this, each bit was unexpected, every new detail throwing him for another loop. It was hard to keep up.

Sitting here now though, just getting to  _ talk _ to Taako. It was exactly how he always imagined it would be. Comfortable in a way you can only get with someone you’ve known the better part of your life, despite still being so exciting and new.

“I guess so, there are  _ certainly _ a lot of new factors to consider,” he said, and Taako grinned widely at that. He still had on the illusion that made him look almost like a regular elf, and Kravitz wondered if they were going to make a habit of wearing them around the house. He supposed it would probably be safer, but he didn’t- he hoped they didn’t feel like they had to.

“Exactly! So then, how long do you think it’ll take?” Taako asked, leaning in closer with clear interest. Kravitz paused, putting a hand to his chin in thought.

“Well, considering the first words out of Barry’s mouth were telling Lup how beautiful she is…” he started, Taako snorting in amusement. “I give it nine months? Nine to a year,” he decided. His previous bet had been at  _ least _ another two, but he figured, or well he  _ hoped _ that this would speed them up a bit.

“Six months, tops. If Barold keeps dropping shit like  _ that _ there’s no fucking way something's not gonna break,” Taako said with certainty. Kravitz supposed it was some pretty sound reasoning, but he wasn’t going to back out now.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” he said with a grin. Maybe it should have been strange, how comfortable it had gotten in just a few moments. Except it wasn’t strange at all, because he’d known Taako for a decade now. He was his best friend, and clearly Kravitz hadn’t known everything about him, but those few things didn’t discount all of the things he  _ did _ know.

“Hey,” Taako said after a moment, his voice a bit softer than it had been whenever he’d spoke before. “You guys have uh, taken all this real fucking well. We kinda worried you guys wouldn’t like, be down with everything,” he said. He’d stopped looking at Kravitz, instead playing with the brim of his hat, which was still sitting on the coffee table. Every time it moved the star-like sparkles shifted, blinking in and out. Kravitz chuckled before sighing, choosing to keep looking at the hat instead of Taako as well as he spoke.

“I mean, I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot to process. I’m  _ still _ trying to process it all, but it’s not like anything you’ve told us today changes… who you are,” he said, actually chancing looking at Taako. He knew the fae didn’t do sincere all that well, but considering everything they’d left to come here, it probably called for a little sincerity. He actually managed to catch Taako’s eye, the fae staring at him as he continued.

“You’re still my best friend Taako, this doesn’t change any of that,” he said. There was a moment where Taako didn’t say anything, and Kravitz had no idea what he was thinking.

“Fuck,” he said finally, the word coming out in almost a sigh. Kravitz couldn’t quite help the concerned frown that fell over his face at that.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked, and Taako immediately started shaking his head.

“No, no you’re good. You’re perfect. This is just- it’s a lot to process on this end too,” he said, and Kravitz tried to nod understandingly. Of course this was a lot for Taako, he was the one who’d just left his home for a world he’d presumably had never been to before.

“Would you like to take your mind off it for a bit? We could watch some TV. Did they have TV back in your, um, court?” Kravitz asked, and Taako immediately grinned at the suggestion. There was some edges of relief to the smile as well.

“Nothing worth watching,” he said, letting go of the brim of his hat and leaning back in the couch again. “I’m down to see what this world has to offer,” he added, and Kravitz chucked at that. Grabbing the remote, he wasn’t sure what to put on, but he figured they’d be able to find something.

“Well, in that case I really hope you end up liking what you see,” Kravitz said as he started to flip through channels.

“Oh, I’m sure I will,” Taako muttered, with more certainty in his voice than Kravitz expected. He didn’t comment on it though, instead continuing to click through the channels as he looked for something interesting.

He should probably let the fae decide on that for now. It was hard to think of anything else as remotely interesting when he had Taako sitting right there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so upping the chapter count a bit, I should just know when i start a 'fun little idea that'll take no time at all' like this that it's gonna be like 6 or 7 chapters actually. Still gonna hold by my attempt at getting it all out pretty quick, I'd like to finish writing it all before april if I can, we'll see how that goes. Won't be updating _every_ other day but I'd like to get out at least two or three chapters a week. Very surprised and delighted at how many people are here for this au. 
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

They ended up settling on a cooking show. It seemed like a pretty safe bet, something he knew Taako was passionate about to hopefully hold his interest.

A lot of things that had been a little strange before made much more sense to Kravitz now. Taako had always loved food and cooking, and according to all the letters he sent was very skilled at it. Kravitz could certainly attest to that now as well. Still, things had been a bit odd. He knew, or at least he’d thought, that Taako was from another country, and so of course all the foods they had and were popular wouldn’t be the same.

It always seemed a bit weird that Taako hadn't learned what a microwave was until Kravitz explained it to him when they were 17. Lots of little things like that, which individually were easy enough to brush away but put all together definitely posed some questions.

The twins had said that their family was strict. That they could be downright backwards at time, closed off and shut in and forced them to pull away from the rest of the world. None of that had been a lie, Kravitz just had no idea how literal it actually was.

So, even though Kravitz had been a little worried that Taako would know too much for the cooking show to actually hold much interest for him, he seemed almost enraptured by it. He was half critiquing their techniques and half practically taking notes.

Kravitz might have spent most of the show watching Taako instead of it. He’d never cared much one way or the other for cooking shows, although the competition ones could be fun.

They ended up watching another after that one finished, and they were nearing the end by the time Lup and Barry finally came back inside. Kravitz glanced over at the window when he heard the back door open again, having nearly forgotten where they were. He quickly took in the fact that it was pitch black outside. It must have been dark outside for some time now.

“You guys took a while, everything go alright?” Kravitz called, not moving to stand up or anything yet. The two appeared in the living room doorway a moment later, and from what Kravitz could tell they still had all their limbs attached.

“Oh yeah, no it was fine. Lup can make light,” Barry said, a somewhat awestruck tone to his voice still.

“What did you two get up to?” Lup asked. She quickly crossed the room, heading over to the couch and sitting down on the other side of Taako. He didn’t budge when she slung an arm around his shoulders, the whole thing looking like a pretty standard case of one sibling trying to annoy another.

“Krav was just showing me some TV they have in this realm,” Taako said.

“Boring,” Lup replied immediately, and Taako rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” she continued, turning to look over at him and Barry, “we should probably be letting you guys sleep soon, right? We’ve still got some things we need to work out and finish up anyway, right Taako?”

“Oh, yeah I  _ guess _ so. If you want to actually be productive and shit,” he said, not sounding too thrilled by the idea. Kravitz still didn’t think he’d be able to sleep anytime soon, but when he glanced at the clock it was already almost 11pm. He had to be up for work in the morning, and he might as well try to sleep instead of forgoing it all together.

“Right, it wouldn’t hurt to try and get some rest I suppose,” Kravitz said, standing up a bit reluctantly. There wasn’t any reason to be though, as far as any of them could tell the twins didn’t have anywhere else to stay for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t have plenty of time to hang out later.

God. Taako and Lup were  _ staying here. _ What were they going to tell their mother?

What were they going to tell their  _ landlord? _

(Nothing, obviously. As far as the landlord was concerned at least)

“Are you sure you don’t want help with the guest room? If you want you can stay out here until we fix it up, it’s fine,” Barry offered, but Lup quickly waved away the concern.

“Don’t even worry about it babe. C’mon Taako, let’s let our boys rest,” she said, grabbing her brother by the shoulder and pulling him up off the couch. Taako didn’t look very pleased, but he didn’t fight her either, letting himself be dragged along back towards the guest room.

“Fiiine. Later Krav, we’ll catch up more tomorrow,” Taako said, and Kravitz nodded.

“Of course, good night,” he said, Barry saying a quick good night as well. The twins waved before leaving the living room completely, and after another moment Kravitz heard the door to the guest bedroom open and then close again. Once it was him and Barry alone in the room he sighed heavily.

“Holy shit,” Barry said, and Kravitz immediately nodded in agreement.

“I know,” he said, trying to let himself settle somewhat from the way it felt like his life had just gone through a whirlwind. When he glanced over to see how Barry was doing, he was still staring at the doorway the twins had left through. His clothes looked a bit dirty from whatever they’d been doing outside, maybe a little singed even, and he had an absolutely smitten look on his face. “Babe?” Kravitz asked, letting some of his amusement show through in his voice.

“That’s- it’s- Lup’s called me that for years. She calls  _ everyone _ that,” Barry stuttered out, his face several shades darker red than it had been a moment ago. Kravitz snorted, starting to head back towards their bedrooms. A bit thankfully they were on the other end of the house from the guest bedroom.

“Do you regularly call her beautiful too?” Kravitz asked, definitely enjoying the chance to mess with Barry instead of focus on his own problems. Well, not problems. Predicament? His brother let out a loud, pained groan at that, looking like he wanted someone to kill him.

“God please don’t remind me of that,” he whined, putting his face in his hands. “I mean, it’s- you saw them! It’s not like I was  _ wrong,” _ he complained.

“No, that’s fair,” Kravitz said, pausing in front of his door. “You alright though?” he asked, and Barry quickly nodded. 

“Yeah no, I’m doing good. Better than good, I- yeah,” he said, and somehow Kravitz had a pretty good idea of what he meant by that. He was fairly sure he felt the same way right about now.

“Goodnight Barry,” he said, Barry nodding and heading over to his own room.

“Night bud.”

Once he was in his room Kravitz immediately went to his bed, collapsing into it and burying his face in his pillow. He was half tempted to start screaming into it, just to let out some of the nervous energy inside of him. He didn’t though, because he was practically a grown ass adult at this point.

Well, he was twenty-three. Close enough.

Kravitz was right about not getting a lot of sleep that night. It was hard to focus on sleep when his brain kept trying to process everything. It was even harder when it kept getting hung up on how sharp Taako’s teeth were and if it would hurt trying to kiss him.

Rolling over onto his back, he made sure to hold the pillow in place so it kept covering his face.

He had it so fucking bad. If Taako and Lup’s ultimate plan was to use fae powers to charm them and then eat their souls he wouldn’t even complain  _ that _ much.

Eventually Kravitz did manage to get to sleep, but it was so late that his alarm waking him up a short couple of hours later was hell. Rolling out of bed, Kravitz got dressed and ready for work mostly on autopilot. His brain was foggy from sleep and the only thing he could focus on was how much he would like to keep sleeping. Or at least get a cup of coffee.

When he went to leave his room he nearly fell on his ass as he stumbled back. It took a few seconds too long for his eyes and brain to process the elf standing in his doorway. No, not elf, fae. Right.

“Shit, sorry. I heard you moving around,” Taako said, taking a step back from the door as Kravitz’s brain came back online with all of the pertinent information from yesterday. Like the fact that Taako and Lup were staying with them now, and that they just so happened to be fae.

“It’s alright, I didn’t expect you to be standing there is all,” he said, starting towards the kitchen. Taako didn’t have his elven disguise up now, and Kravitz saw him glance back towards Barry’s door.

“He’s not awake yet?” he asked, and Kravitz shook his head.

“No, he leaves after me,” he explained. Barry got home later, but he also got to leave later and sleep in more, something Kravitz was very jealous of at the moment. There was a small frown on Taako’s face as he followed him into the kitchen. So far there hadn’t been any sign of Lup yet, but it was possible she was still sleeping too. If they even slept, he still wasn’t sure about that.

“When do you have to leave?” Taako asked, and that was a good question. When Kravitz glanced at the clock on the back of the stove he winced, moving to throw several powerbars into his lunch bag.

“Now, actually,” he said. He turned towards the fridge to grab a drink, and when he turned around again Taako was rummaging through his lunch box. He seemed to get the message after a second of Kravitz staring at him, handing it over so Kravitz could throw his drink in.

“When do you get back?” he asked, continuing to follow Kravitz out into the living room.

“Around five,” he answered, checking his pockets for his car keys. He hadn't thought about the fact that the twins wouldn’t have much of an idea of their schedules. He’d written them about his job, but he hadn’t exactly given them an itinerary and he doubted it worked the same in a fae court.

“When’s that?” Taako pressed, and okay, maybe it was  _ really _ different from how things worked in the fae court.

“Eight hours? Well, eight and a half, almost nine with commute and everything,” he said, not expecting the completely flabbergasted look from Taako at that.

_ “Nine hours? _ You already spent like six sleeping!” he complained. Kravitz knew he should get going soon, but he’d left later before and still managed to make it to work on time, and he didn’t want to leave Taako upset.

“We’re actually supposed to get closer to seven or eight hours of sleep,” he said, a bit amused that the fae had apparently been counting the hours. Somehow Taako managed to look even  _ more _ distressed hearing that.

“When am I supposed to actually  _ see _ you?” he asked, and Kravitz genuinely hadn’t expected this. He supposed it made sense, it was kind of bullshit how much time he had to spend working, but it was Barry and his own choice to move out. Moving out came with a lot of work.

“I have days off, and there’s still time after work,” he tried, but it didn’t look like Taako was swayed any.

“No, that’s bullshit,” he said, a thoughtful look on his face. Then his eyes seemed to almost light up as an idea came to him, and Kravitz froze a little as Taako suddenly grabbed his arm. “I’ll just come with you.”

Oh no.

“Taako, that’s not- I’m really sorry but I can’t bring you to work with me,” he said, hoping that he could somehow convince the fae that this was a bad idea. Taako shook his head though, still practically hugging his arm.

“I won’t get in the way, promise. And look!” he held out one arm, still not letting go of Kravitz with his other, and that glimmer of sparkles was there for just a moment. When he blinked the disguise from yesterday was back up. “Totally normal elf! No problems here,” he insisted.

Kravitz knew he had to keep arguing against this, but it was getting harder and harder to think with Taako’s face so close to his face.

“What about Lup? I don’t want to leave her alone all day,” he managed after a moment. It actually seemed to get Taako to pause and think it over, which Kravitz had hoped would at least lead to him letting go. It hadn’t.

“I’m sure she could tag along with Barry. You know he wouldn’t say no if she asked,” he said, and Kravitz wanted to argue with that, he really did. The problem with that was Taako was completely right.

“That’s- it’s just… I work in a  _ morgue _ Taako! It’s not exactly a fun and entertaining environment!” he said. Taako just grinned wider though, and Kravitz was pretty sure he could tell that he won.

“I’ll be the judge of that my dude,” he said, and after a moment Kravitz let out a long sigh. Pulling out his phone, he winced at the time.

“Fuck, I need to go,” he said, and there was no way he wasn’t going to be late. It wasn’t the worst thing, he was sure his mother would understand when he explained the situation. Or well, explained as much as he could. Taking one more look at Taako, he buckled. “Fine, okay, you can come.”

“Hell yeah!” Taako cheered, finally letting go of his arm (which Kravitz should not be as disappointed by that as he was). Turning back around, he put his hands up around his mouth before calling out across the house. “Hey Lup! I’m going with Krav to his work! Bug Barold to take you to his so you’re not stuck here alone!”

“You got it!” Lup yelled back a moment later. Kravitz felt like he should apologize to Barry for putting him in this position, but he didn’t have the time to now. He’d try and remember to send him a text during lunch or something.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, heading out to the car with Taako in tow. The fae practically jumped into the passenger seat, quickly starting to inspect every bit he could get his hands on, poking the gear shift, flipping down the visor, opening the drawer in the passenger side.

“Have you ever been in a car before?” he asked, putting on his seatbelt and getting everything else adjusted. Taako shook his head, which wasn’t that surprising considering his reaction to everything.

“Buckle that strap in across your chest, like this,” he said, showing his own seatbelt. Taako nodded, quickly following instructions. He’d said he’d lost immortality when he came to this world, so Kravitz certainly wasn’t going to risk anything. As soon as he was buckled in Kravitz started off towards his work. He was driving a little slower than he normally would, and it was harder than he expected to keep his eyes on the road. He wanted to watch Taako’s face as he took in this world for what had to be the first time.

“There’s so much here,” Taako said after a moment, and Kravitz nodded.

“We live pretty well into the city. Is it different from when you’re from?” he asked, and he could see Taako nod out of the corner of his eye. He was still mostly turned to look out the window though, so even if Kravitz tried he wouldn’t have been able to get a clear view of his expression.

“So fucking different my dude, it was boring as shit,” Taako said. It was quiet in the car, Kravitz had been in a rush and a little distracted, so he’d forgot to set up any music. He could turn on the radio, but he’d rather listen to Taako right now.

Fuck. That was the cheesiest thing he’d ever thought and he hadn’t even been trying it just  _ happened.  _ The only good thing right now was that Taako didn’t seem to notice anything happening in his head, continuing to speak.

“Like yeah, we were safe, that was always the big selling point. It’s  _ safe _ in the court, it’s fair in the court, it’s fucking hoedown Sunday in the goddamn court, doesn’t matter,” he grumbled. Kravitz took the turn for his work’s street, glancing at the clock every so often. He’d probably only be about ten minutes late thankfully. Technically meetings and such weren’t scheduled until 9am, so it wasn’t the worst thing, but he still had other duties to attend to.

“Is hoedown Sunday a real thing?” Kravitz asked, hoping to lighten the mood a little bit. It seemed to work, getting a surprised bark of laughter out of the fae. Taako shook his head afterwards, turning to face forward in his seat again.

“Nah, I’ll admit to making that one up,” he said, and that was kind of what Kravitz expected. It was quiet for a moment, and as much as he wanted to keep the mood light and keep Taako smiling, he didn’t want to just leave the subject on that either.

“I’m sorry you were stuck somewhere you hated so much,” Kravitz said, and Taako sighed.

“I mean, it wasn’t all bad. But if they thought they could keep cha’ boy by offering a fucking  _ ultimatum, _ fuck that,” he said. Kravitz couldn’t help but be curious hearing that, but the twins had already seemed uncomfortable talking about the exact specifics of why they left. He didn’t want to press him on it if it was still too raw. Not that it mattered much, since they just pulled into his work.

“Are we here?” Taako asked as Kravitz parked, and he nodded.

“Yes,” he said, jumping out of the car and barely remembering to grab his lunch. Taako followed along as he rushed inside, and Kravitz was rapidly trying to figure out exactly what he was going to say to explain this.

“Sorry I’m late. Had an unexpected surprise last night,” he called once they were inside. The front office was nice, with low light and comfortable furniture to make as calming as experience for anyone coming in here as possible. The back rooms were a lot colder and sterile, but that was a necessity. There wasn’t anyone at the front desk at the moment, but Kravitz could hear footsteps heading towards them from the back.

“There you are dear, I was starting to get worried. You aren’t usually late,” his mother said, and as soon as she stepped into the room Kravitz saw her gaze focus in on Taako. The fae was standing a little ways behind him, looking a bit nervous now that they were actually here. “Oh, I’m sorry, who is this?” she asked, a still pleasant tone to her voice. Kravitz could hear the curiosity under the politeness though. He tried to give a regular, reassuring smile as he stepped aside a bit.

“Right so, sorry we forgot to give you a heads up. This is Taako, we offered for them to come down and visit for a bit. Something must’ve gotten lost in the mail though because they ended up showing up before their letter did,” Kravitz said, maybe stretching the truth a little bit. Taako stepped out from behind him with a grin, looking genuinely excited.

“Nice to meet you Mama Q, heard a lot about you from your boys. I’m sure Lup would’ve loved to come say hi too, but she’s spending the day with Barry,” he said. When Kravitz turned to look at his mother, he could tell she was delighted despite her subdued expression. He told himself it wasn’t surprising, she had about a decade of both him and Barry going on and on about the twins. Of course she’d be excited to finally meet either of them.

“Kravitz, I can’t  _ believe _ you forgot to tell me. Taako, it’s wonderful to finally meet you. You have no idea how many times I’d find those two waiting by the mailbox for your letters. He still rushes home early on Thursdays to hear from you,” she said, and oh right. That was why he was nervous about Taako meeting his mother. The look on his friend’s face was delighted, but Kravitz kind of wanted to crawl into a hole.

“Is that so? Well we’re gonna have to all meet up for dinner some time so that you can fill me and Lup in on any other juicy nugs that these two decided to leave out of their letters,” Taako said, and yep, Kravitz would love a hole to hide in and never leave right now. He knew for a fact he could fit in one of the body drawers. He might go hide in a body drawer.

“Of course, how long will you be in town?” his mother asked, and it was easy to notice the quick glance Taako shot towards him.

“Definitely long enough to get dinner,” he said, which yeah, that sure was true.

“Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?” Kravitz asked, figuring he should get some things straightened out before they went much further. “Will you be alright in here Taako? It shouldn’t take long,” he added, and the fae nodded.

“For sure,” he said. With that Kravitz quickly went into the back with his mother. They didn’t go far, closing the door behind them for some privacy. He could see the look of concern on her face when she turned to him.

“Is everything alright dear?” she asked, and Kravitz nodded. Everything  _ was _ alright, it was still just a lot. Not that his mother should know that, so there was no reason for her to be asking or looking worried like she was.

“Yes, no of course,” he said, trying to figure out exactly how he wanted to word everything still. He didn’t manage it quite fast enough to start explaining before his mother spoke again.

“Kravitz, you don’t need to lie to me,” she said, and he was trying not to look guilty. He was pretty sure he didn’t manage it all that well though.

“I’m not-” he tried, but she was giving him an incredulous look as she cut him off.

“You  _ forgot _ to mention that Taako and Lup were visiting? I’m sorry dear but I have a very hard time believing that,” she said, and Kravitz felt his shoulders slump. He couldn’t exactly argue against that.

“Things broke bad with their family. It’s- I don’t know the full story, or what the exact catalyst was, but they’d mentioned things getting rough and we invited them over. It all happened so much faster than they expected though, they didn’t even have a chance to contact us before they showed up last night,” Kravitz explained, and it was the truth. Like Lup said, they weren’t  _ lying.  _ He could see the understanding and concern fall over his mother’s face at that.

“Their first move was to come all the way over here?” she asked, and it wasn’t in a judgmental way, instead just confused. Kravitz couldn’t blame her much for that one. People’s first choice for getting kicked out wasn’t typically ‘immediately go to another country.' It hadn't even been that simple for them either.

“They didn’t have anywhere else to go. It’s- you remember some of the things they used to say about their family, how they had to grow up,” he said, and she nodded. The twins complained a lot about their family, for what always sounded like good reasons. They were shuffled around a lot, never in one place long enough to make friends. A year after they started writing they claimed to have switched to home schooling (although Kravitz wondered now if that wasn’t just a hasty attempt to not have to lie about going to school anymore) and they were constantly told what to do, how to act. To be seen, not heard.

Taako and Lup always took a lot of pride in how often they broke that particular rule.

“I see. I’m sorry dear, are they doing alright? You know if you need any help you can always ask,” his mother said with clear sympathy in her voice, Kravitz nodded.

“I think they’re alright. Mostly still processing the uh, big change,” he said, and his mother hummed in understanding. “We told them they can stay as long as they like, we’re still figuring it all out,” he added. She didn’t seem bothered by them not having too solid of a plan yet, which wasn’t that surprising. Even though it seemed like their mother always knew exactly what she had to do, she never bothered them for taking time to figure things out themselves.

“Of course. Well, no matter what the circumstances are I’m sure you’re glad to finally get to see them,” she said, and Kravitz nodded. He tried not to let his expression betray just how glad he was about getting to meet them, but he was pretty sure his mother could see through that anyway.

“Yeah, it’s uh, it’s pretty great,” he said, and Kravitz glanced back towards the door behind them. “I should probably get back to him. Uh, he wanted to hang out at work with me today? I promise this won’t become a habit,” he added quickly. His mother looked a bit amused, but nodded none the less.

“It’s quite alright dear. We shouldn’t be too busy today if you’d like to show him around some,” she said, and Kravitz nodded. Kravitz nodded, and with that she started to head back to her office and he returned to the front again. Taako immediately perked up when he stepped into the room, and it looked like he’d just been leaning on the counter.

“Krav! Everything good? Where’s your mom?” he asked, somehow managing to smile while also looking concerned. Nervous. It was cute.

“Everything’s fine. She needed to get back to work is all,” he said, and Taako nodded. “Which speaking of, I really should as well, but I did get permission to show you around first if you’d like,” he added. Any of the worry that had been on Taako’s face before left at that, his smile widening.

“Hell yeah, show me where you keep the dead bodies,” Taako said, actually vaulting up and over the front counter with what looked to be surprisingly little effort. As soon as he was on the other side he latched onto Kravitz’s arm again, looking up at him expectantly. It took Kravitz’s brain much longer than it should have to realize he was waiting to be shown around.

“As long as you don’t touch them. Or uh, do any magic around them? Magic around dead bodies sounds like a bad idea,” he said, feeling like he’d paused way too long before actually speaking. If Taako felt that way too he didn’t say anything, instead just shrugging.

“Probably not a good idea, no,” he said, in such a non-committal way that Kravitz couldn’t help but snorting. He could think well enough to finally start walking, leading Taako to show off the rest of the building. The fae seemed perfectly content to keep a hold of his arm as they walked.

And well, Kravitz certainly wasn’t going to complain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so I absolutely have to gush about the gorgeous art hannakoga did of [Taako](https://hannahkoga.tumblr.com/post/613723818011328512/kravkalackin-descended-from-heaven-to-bring-us-a) and that toooceanblue did of [Lup.](https://blueoceanarts.tumblr.com/post/613798378091986944/id-two-images-in-the-first-is-two-colored-bust) They're both so so good. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

The thing was, Taako was well aware he wasn’t all that great at the whole ‘emotions’ thing. A part of being a fae, even if him and Lup had always been weird for fae that didn't go away. Caring about other people wasn’t a thing that came naturally to them, they had to work at it.

Except they’d gotten a little too good at it, and now Taako had no idea how to fucking turn it off.

And because of that now Taako was stuck living among mortals, and also  _ he _ was mortal, and that fucking sucked but he couldn’t even be that pissed about it.

He couldn’t complain because Kravitz looked so fucking earnest as he showed Taako around his work, and he got all sorts of flustered whenever Taako grabbed his arm, and kept on staring at him whenever he thought Taako wasn’t looking. Good staring, and it didn’t seem to matter if he had a disguise up or not.

“You are aware that because of your job when the zombie apocalypse comes you’ll be the first to go, right?” Taako asked during a lull in the conversation, and they’d been walking through the building for a little while. Kravitz wouldn’t let him see any actual bodies, but he did show him where they were kept. He laughed at the comment, and it was such a fucking dorky laugh. So different from how anyone but Lup and him would have ever let themself sound in public.

He really fucking liked Kravitz’s laugh.

“Yeah, I suppose that would be a problem if zombies were rea-” he cut himself off, and Taako could see the sudden look of uncertainty as he seemed to think it over. “Are zombies… they’re not, right?” he asked, sounding so unsure and Taako couldn’t help grinning widely. If his disguise didn’t completely conceal the sharpness of his teeth right now, well there wasn’t anyone else here watching them.

“You didn’t think fae were real before yesterday,” was all he said, not able to resist fucking with him a little bit.

“Yes, but that’s different. It’s  _ different, _ right Taako?” he asked, and Taako shrugged as nonchalantly as possible.

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried to make a zombie,” he said. It looked like Kravitz wanted to keep arguing with him, but instead just sighed after a moment, continuing to lead him through his work. Taako followed along, keeping a casual arm hooked with Kravitz’s.

Or well, as casual as it absolutely needed to be.

The last room they went to Kravitz introduced as his office. It was pretty simple but classy, nice hard wood furniture and some calming abstract art on the walls.

“I’m gonna have to run out for a meeting or two with a client, but those shouldn’t take too long. I should be able to spend most of the day in here with you,” he explained, and Taako nodded. He could understand that this whole work thing was important to Kravitz, even if he had a hard time wrapping his head around why. He headed over to one of the comfy looking chairs that was set up in the corner next to a large fake plant. When Kravitz wasn't looking, he touched the plant and turned it into a real one. He wondered how long it would take him to notice.

“Don’t even worry about it. I told you I wouldn’t get in the way. Just do whatever you need to, I’m good here,” he said. Kravitz looked all uncertain, heading over to his desk and messing around with some papers.

“Are you sure? I’d hate for you to have come here just to be bored all day,” he said, and Taako nodded.

“My dude, it’s chill. I’ll let you know if I get bored,” he said, and that actually seemed to alleviate Kravitz’s worry some. He starting to focus on whatever it is he needed to fill out those papers for, his brow furrowed slightly as he read with a look of concentration on his face. Taako figured he would end up bothering Kravitz some more a bit later, but for now he pulled out a book. Or well, it looked like a book. It  _ was _ a book, but he wasn’t actually focused on the book part. Instead, he turned his attention to the things he’d stuffed between the pages of said book.

He and Lup had done a hell of a job cleaning up that guest room last night. They didn’t have much else to do while waiting for Kravitz and Barry to sleep, and maybe they were both looking for a bit of an opportunity to show off. He’d have to drag Kravitz back there as soon as they got back to their house, he hadn’t had a chance to show him before they left.

Taako wasn’t even sure if Kravitz had been aware these were in there when he lent them the room. There were a lot of boxes, but it also seemed like they hadn’t been touched in a while, so it could go either way.

The boxes had been full of letters. The ones Taako had sent Kravitz over the years. He hadn’t really thought about what he did with them after reading, but he hadn’t expected it to be ‘keep every single one.’

Sure, Taako had kept all of his, but it was easier when you could just shove them in an extra-dimensional space. Kravitz didn’t have that luxury.

He’d rummaged through a bunch of them last night, not really reading them, just gathering up any that looked interesting. The particularly memorable ones. He figured now would be as good a time as any to reread some shit from memory lane and try to process how the hell him and Lup had actually got here in the first place. It wasn’t hard to figure out where to start either, even if it had taken a bit of time to find this one in particular. It was rumpled and faded with age, one of the corners having gotten torn off at some point. Taako was honestly impressed it had lasted this long.

_ Greetings new pen pal! _

_ My name is Taako. I am 12 years old. I live with my aunt and my sister and I love cooking. I’m very good at it too, I especially like cooking desserts. My sister’s name is Lup and we’re twins (which means we’re the same age.) I’m a boy and she’s a girl though. _

_ These letters are supposed to help us better writing in Common. It’s also supposed to help make friends. Lup is my best friend, but I get bored a lot. I hope to be able to be friends with you too, pen pal. Not as good as with Lup, but it would be nice to have more. Learning Common isn’t very interesting, I’m already very good at it. My teacher says so, but she also says that Lup is better (that is because my sister is a nerd!) _

_ What do you like to do? Do you have a sibling too? I don’t know what it’s like to not have one, but it sounds lonely. It also sounds boring. I hope to learn a lot about you, and also I hope that you are not boring. I don’t think you will be though. _

_ My sister wrote a letter too. Can you find out who got it? She says her pen pal will be cooler than mine, but I doubt it. _

_ Please write back, _

_ Taako (from Faerûn) _

Taako had forgotten a lot of his first letter, reading it again now was pretty wild. It was such a simple thing, even if the results had been anything but simple. He did remember how it had taken weeks to convince their family to let them contact the world outside of the court. They’d been learning about it in history, had been learning the language with Common, and it sounded real fucking interesting. People who weren’t their court sounded cool as shit.

Eventually they managed to wear them down, and the fae in charge of their Commons lesson had decided to put it to use to help them practice the language. Once that was decided it was easy enough to use magic to slip in two extra letters into a program already going on that the mortals were running.

Glancing up, Taako made sure Kravitz wasn’t paying attention as he opened a small portal, quickly pulling out that first response he’d sent. The elvish was choppy, and he’d left out using any accents entirely, but it was still legible enough. Plus, it wasn't like his own Common had been perfect at the time either. It’d been a while since he’d went back and read this one, but he still basically had the thing memorized.

_ Hello Taako! _

_ It is nice to meet you, my name is Kravitz Queen. I am 12 and a boy too. I live with my mom, she is very nice. I don’t know how to cook, it’s very neat that you do. I like music, I am in band and I play the trampoline. _

_ I hope to get better at Elven with these letters. I read it better than I can write it so far. I’m not very good at speaking it yet. I also hope we can be friends, you sound very neat person. It sounds fun having a twin. _

_ Your sister’s pen pal’s name is Barry. He is my brother now. My mom adopted him a few months ago, in July. He is not my friend like you and your sister are friends. I think he is kind of boring. I think you definitely got the better pen pal. I am excited to keep writing you. _

_ From, _

_ Kravitz Queen _

It was shorter than Taako’s own letter, and it was obvious Kravitz had a harder time with Elven than he did with common. He’d found out a few letters later than he’d meant ‘trumpet’ where he had said trampoline. It was a little funny, picturing Kravitz playing the fucking trumpet now. He’d switched to the violin a few years later, and now he mostly wrote his own music. Taako would have to bother him to actually play him something now that he was here.

Flipping around in his book, Taako started reading another letter he’d sent Kravitz. It was from the very end of that first year of writing each other, and it was weird thinking how long ago that was now. He could remember writing it easier than the other one though, because Lup and him had to argue quite a bit to be able to keep writing as the lessons drew to a close. None of their tutors had expected the two of them to stick with this little project for as long as they had. He was sure they’d thought it would go away in a few months or something, once the two got bored.

But they hadn’t, and that had surprised them as much as it had anyone else. He didn’t want to stop writing Kravitz, Kravitz was  _ fun _ and  _ interesting  _ and  _ different. _

Their pleading had convinced Tiali to let them keep writing and she promised to set up a way for them to keep sending letters, as long as they figured out a place to send them. She was the fae they had always referred to as their aunt in their letters. Fae didn’t put much stock in things like that, things like family. It was just another thing that set him and Lup apart, how much it meant to them to be together, that they cared for each other. They were twins. They were family and it was important and no one could take that away. 

_ Hi Kravitz! _

_ My teacher says I’m doing even better at Common than I was at the beginning of the year. I better be, or else he’d be a really bad teacher, right? Not that he needs to be a good one, I think most of my improvement has been from writing you. You’re lucky you’re interesting or else I probably would have gotten bored and stopped writing a long time ago.  _

_ I think I want to keep writing you though. This thing was supposed to be to make friends, and I’m not going to let Lup beat me at that. Also, I guess you’re not bad too. Lup definitely wants to keep writing Barry, for some reason (the reason is that they’re both dorks). _

_ School is ending soon though, and I don’t want to have to wait for you to come back to respond. Do you have a place we can send the letters instead? Lup and I move around a lot. We don’t have an address we can give you, but my aunt said you can send it to something called a ‘PO Box’ instead. _

_ Your friend for real now, _

_ Taako (from Faerûn) _

It was kind of funny how much Taako was trying to pretend he wasn’t invested in this shit in that letter. He wasn’t all that great at it yet, he wasn’t used to having to pretend not to give a shit. Usually he just didn’t and it was genuine.

Before he could get around to reading the next letter he’d brought Kravitz stood up, catching his attention. When he looked up the human was gathering up a few papers, and he glanced over at Taako with an apologetic smile.

“I have to go meet up with a client now, are you gonna be good here?” he asked, and Taako quickly nodded.

“For sure, go do your death work,” he said, waving him away casually. The smile on Kravitz’s face somehow turned even more sincere than it already was, and something about it made him real aware of how all his internal organs were currently working.

It would have been so easy, to jump on out of this chair, walk over to Kravitz and pull him into a kiss. He certainly wanted to, and Taako didn’t typically keep himself from what he wanted too often. Another thing with being a fae, not real big on delayed gratification.

And yet all he could do was sit there and watch as Kravitz left the room, promising to be back in an hour at most. As soon as he was gone and the door was shut behind him Taako sighed, slumping back in his chair in frustration. He stayed there for a few minutes, staring up at the slightly speckled ceiling.

They hadn’t seen much of this world yet, but he couldn’t say he hated it so far. It was new, and busy, and interesting. That was certainly doing a pretty good job of keeping his interest so far.

They weren’t here for this world though.

Sighing once again, he pushed himself up. Instead of staying where he was (he got bored if he stayed in one place for too long anyway) Taako went to go sprawl out in Kravitz’s chair to keep reading the old letters. He made sure he wasn’t messing up any of Kravitz’s papers as he shifted to let his feet rest up on the desk as well.

He remembered this one distinctly. It hadn’t been too long after they started writing outside of the school program.

_ Hey Kravitz, _

_ You know how I said we move around a lot? We’d been staying with our aunt for a while, the nice one. Well we moved again. I know our aunt doesn’t get to decide when these things happen, but it’s annoying. We can still get your letters okay though, don’t worry about that. I’m just annoyed because this is annoying. The uncle we’re living with now is an asshole. _

_ You’ve only ever lived with your mom right? Before she took in Barry I guess. She sounds nice. It would be weird for us if one of our aunts or uncles decided to just keep us forever like she did with Barry. I know our family is weird though, sometimes it’s a little frustrating. I guess not ever having any change would be boring too though. _

_ We’re gonna get home schooled though, our aunt was the only one who thought it might be nice for us to reach out. I’m pretty sure our uncle would rather we didn’t even write you guys anymore, but he can just be mad about it. _

_ Sorry this letter is so short. I don’t want our uncle actually getting annoyed by this. _

_ Talk to you soon, _

_ Taako (from Faerûn) _

They tried not to lie to Kravitz and Barry as much as possible, but the whole home school had been a little unavoidable. They had never been to a proper school, not like the ones they had here. Kravitz and Barry had to think they did for them to start writing them at all though, but they didn’t want to keep up with the lie any longer than they had to. The first time they had to switch guardians again seemed like a good time to drop it, a reasonable enough explanation.

Taako almost winced as he moved to the next letter. It had been a bit out of place, a little more crumpled and worn than just the age would suggest. It wasn’t quite as old as the other ones he’d been reading so far. A little over two years into writing the letters, it was obvious that Kravitz had read this one a lot. Taako could remember the letter Kravitz had sent him right before this, the one it had been a response to.

His bird had died, got killed by some neighborhood cat. Taako couldn’t remember ever hearing him that upset in a letter before. It had taken a moment before he’d realized that the dried water drops on the paper had been from tears, and Taako could remember how out of his depths he’d felt when writing him back. Could remember how much he wanted to get this letter  _ right. _

Kravitz was upset, and he wanted to fix it, and he’d never felt that for anyone but Lup before.

_ Kravitz, _

_ I’m really sorry about your bird. _

_ I’ve never had a pet before, I’ve never had anything die at all really, other than plants. They don’t count though, because I don’t care about plants. I know you cared about your bird a lot though, she sounded like a good pet. I’m sure she was an awesome bird, way better than all the dumb little songbirds in our cousin’s garden. Smarter too, from all the cool tricks you said you taught her. _

_ Like I said, I’ve never had a pet or someone die like that before, so I can’t really pretend to know how you feel right now. If Lup was ever gone forever though I think I would just stop being a person. Either sleep forever or destroy the whole world. I hope you don’t do either of those things, because I would miss writing to you. Maybe just sleep for a week or destroy something small, like some glass cups and plates. _

_ I’m sorry, I’m not very good at this. I don’t know if you noticed yet, but I’m not really good at the whole emotions thing. I’m actually trying here though, because you know, you’re my friend and I don’t like that you’re sad. I wish I could just bring your bird back for you. I can’t do that though, and Lup said I shouldn’t try to get you a new bird either, since you probably still miss your old one a whole bunch. I don’t really get it, but Lup is better at emotions than I am, so I’ll take her word for it. _

_ I figure this probably doesn’t fix it and you’re gonna keep being sad for a while, and that’s okay even if I don’t want you to be, but I thought you might like something nice anyway. Sorry I didn’t check if your ears are pieced or not first, you could always make them into charms or something if they’re not.  _

_ I hope you feel better soon, _

_ Taako (from Faerûn) _

That had really been the point of no return. Taako hadn’t realized it at the time, although he could tell that it was different. He knew he cared about Kravitz, he’d be a dumbass if he couldn’t admit that. He knew fae shouldn’t  _ care _ about humans, but he and Lup were always doing things fae weren’t supposed to do. Having friends was just another one of those things. It made them weird, made the other members of the court look at them like they were below them, but that had never bothered them before. They  _ knew _ they were just as good as the rest of those assholes, whether they thought so or not.

He never thought it would lead to anything though. Not anything like this. It wasn’t supposed to lead to him and Lup staring down the entirety of their court. Having to bite their tongues as projections of hundreds and  _ hundreds _ of personal letters lined the walls, as the council demanded they explain what the purpose was. Demand they cease these ‘childish attachments.’

To stop writing Kravitz and Barry immediately. That if they made assurances that they didn’t actually  _ care _ about these humans, they would be welcome to stay in the court.

They weren’t lying every time they said it hadn’t been a hard choice to make.

Taako nearly jumped when the door to the office opened, tossing the book into a pocket dimension immediately out of habit. Kravitz stood there for a moment, a hand on the doorknob and a look of startled confusion on his face. It didn’t last long enough, quickly shifting into an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, should’ve knocked. Everything okay?” he asked. Taako quickly nodded, putting a smile back on his face as he kicked his feet off of Kravitz’s desk. He stayed where he was sitting in his chair though, no need to go that far out of his way yet.

“Yeah no, we good. Habits,” he said with a shrug. Kravitz nodded, not looking like he was gonna pry any further than that. Taako watched as he walked over, setting some papers down on his desk before just standing there and staring down at him. Taako grinned even wider at him in response, and it was real fun watching Kravitz fail at keeping a smile off his face.

“Are you going to feel inclined to giving me my chair back anytime soon?” he asked, and Taako tried to look like he was really thinking it over.

“You got something you can give me for it?” he asked back instead, and Kravitz snorted at that.

“Seems a little unfair, since it’s my chair,” he said. Taako could have probably argued with that, but he didn’t bother, reluctantly standing up so Kravitz could sit back down.

“You’re no fun,” he complained, not meaning it in the slightest and pretty damn sure Kravitz could tell.

“We could take a break for lunch now if that would make it up to you. We forgot to bring you something but we can run out real quick if you’d like,” he said, and instead of going back over to his chair in the corner Taako sat down on a clear corner of his desk. He shook his head, maybe looking a little smug.

“Not an issue my dude. I fixed your lunch,” he said, which immediately got a surprised and confused look from Kravitz. He saw the way he very quickly glanced over at his lunch box.

“You what?” he asked, grabbing the lunch bag and staring in befuddled amazement when he pulled out a container definitely a little too big to have actually fit in there. It was magic’d so that the dumplings inside were still steaming when he opened it.

“You just had some weird sad sticks of granola, I don’t know a lot about death but how the fuck are you still alive?” he asked, definitely enjoying the flustered look on Kravitz’s face at this.

“I was running late. I usually at least bring a sandwich or something too,” Kravitz said, and Taako made sure the expression he gave him conveyed just how unimpressed he was. Kravitz seemed to get the point, chucking after a moment. “Point taken. Well uh, this is certainly enough for both of us to share if you’d like,” he said, and Taako grinned at that.

“Hell yeah my dude, hand it over,” he said, and Kravitz held out the tray for Taako to take one. It tasted fucking incredible, just like Taako knew it would, but he still appreciated all the praise that Kravitz insisted pouring on him for it. He certainly couldn’t complain at him insisting on saving a few for his mother to try as well. Taako knew he was good at this, but it was always nice to be appreciated.

Spending the day at Kravitz’s work was quiet. A lot of things about being in the court had been quiet too, but there was a distinct difference between the two. This quiet wasn’t stifling, Taako wasn’t scolded if he wanted to sit upside down in his chair. Instead Kravitz just did a quick double take once he noticed before falling into a small fit of laughter, taking a picture of Taako before he could protest.

It was quiet in a comfortable way, and when it was finally time to head back to Kravitz’s house he apologized for how boring the day had been. Taako just rolled his eyes and told him he apologized too fucking much, because it was true.

It was so unfair that he couldn’t assure Kravitz he for  _ sure _ didn’t mind. That he couldn’t cut off one of his many apologizes by pulling his dumb adorable face into a kiss. Lup had always been more obvious with how fucking hopeless she was for Barry, but Taako knew he had it just as bad.

But he’d never been good at this whole emotions thing, and now that he  _ wanted _ to be, he couldn’t.

The court had been so fucking pissed. Had been furious when they refused to throw away their boys. When instead of affirming that the court was the most important thing, Lup stood there proud as anything and announced that she’d fallen in love with a mortal. Taako tried to match her confidence, but he didn’t quite manage it as he explained that he had fallen as well, for Kravitz.

Fae were petty creatures, that was something Taako and Lup actually shared with the rest of their species. So now, neither of them could say it, couldn’t do  _ anything _ that would spell it out as plain as a confession. If they ever wanted to be able to, Kravitz and Barry would have to say it first.

Taako had no doubt that Lup and Barry would manage to get there.

He’d never been very good at emotions, but Taako hoped that Kravitz knew him well enough to understand what he was trying to say without words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a surprise Taako section. I had planned on doing a Taako pov at some point but it came a bit sooner than I initially planned for, not that I'm complaining. i'm having so much fun with this fic and these good good boys. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	5. Chapter 5

Kravitz was trying his best with all of this, really he was.

When they got back to his house after work Taako had immediately dropped the disguise he’d been wearing, and it was difficult not to stare. Of course, it was hard to not stare at Taako no matter what form he was in, but seeing him as he actually was as a fae was another thing entirely.

Even when Taako lead him back to the guest room, showing him all that they’d done with it over the night. The place was larger than it used to be, the furniture was different, and instead of normal lights small glowing orbs floated around the ceiling. It looked incredible and Kravitz’s attention really should have been on the room.

But instead Kravitz found his gaze continuing to fall back on Taako. On the delighted, prideful smile he had as he showed Kravitz everything.

That smile was going to be the death of him.

Thankfully (or not, Kravitz genuinely couldn’t tell anymore) they were distracted pretty quickly by the sound of Lup and Barry arriving home. It was easier with the four of them, fell more into that easy, natural friendship that came from knowing each other for so long. At the very least, Kravitz could focus on how obviously hopeless Lup and Barry were for each other rather than on his own emotions.

The next morning Taako tried to come to work with him again. Kravitz wasn’t taken quite as off guard this time around, wasn’t running as late. So, he actually had his head about him and could refuse.

“You and Lup should stay and explore around, there’s some nice little shops right down the street,” he tried instead. He would have liked to have Taako come keep him company at work every day, but it was important for them to live their own lives. They should really explore this world if they were going to be stuck here.

“What if we need you guys for something? We haven't exactly been in this world before,” Taako asked, sounding a bit uncertain. That was actually a pretty good question.

“We’re going to have to get you both phones,” Kravitz said, noting the small quirk of the head Taako made at that. Heading over to the other side of the kitchen, Kravitz moved out the old house phone that had gotten shoved behind the toaster and bread. Their landlord had refused to let them get rid of it, but Kravitz supposed it could come in handy now.

“You can use this to call either me or Barry for now. I’ll write down our numbers, and if you ever need either of us you can put them into this and then press this button to call,” he explained. Taako still didn’t look too thrilled by this, but he reluctantly nodded.

“Guess that works,” he said, and Kravitz tried his best to give him a reassuring smile.

“You’ll be fine Taako. Take a look around and explore some. I’m sure you’ll both have a great time,” he said, and it looked like Taako was about to say something to that. Before he could manage to say any words though he clamped his mouth shut, a disgruntled look on his face for a moment before he sighed.

“Yeah alright, I guess we’ll give it a try,” he said. Kravitz couldn’t help but pause at that, not sure exactly what had happened there.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, and this time Taako gave him that easy grin he usually had and nodded.

“We good dog, don’t even worry about it,” he said. Before Kravitz could try and question him any more though Taako was handing him his lunch box. He wasn’t even sure when Taako had gotten a hold of his lunch box. “You have to go soon or you’ll be late, right?” he asked, and Kravitz tried not to look too disappointed as he nodded. He couldn’t help the small smile that worked its way onto his face as he glanced down at his lunchbox though.

“You did something to my lunch again, didn’t you?” he asked. Taako’s grin got even wider, and Kravitz knew objectively that a smile like that should be terrifying. All sharp teeth and menace.

Kravitz shouldn’t want to _ kiss it _ as much as he did.

“Why don’t you just let it be a nice surprise my guy,” he said, and when Kravitz glanced at the clock on the stove he really did have to go.

“Well, I think I’ll thank you preemptively anyway,” he said, somehow resisting the urge to look and see what Taako had replaced his lunch with this time. Instead he quickly got out a piece of paper, writing down his and Barry’s numbers before handing it over to Taako. “I’ll see you after work Taako,” he said, and the fae nodded, taking the paper from him.

“Later Krav,” Taako said. With that Kravitz quickly made sure he had everything before heading out. He couldn’t help laughing and waving when he saw Taako peaking out through the window at him. As soon as he noticed Kravitz saw him he smiled, giving him a wave back.

God, Taako was going to kill him if he kept this up.

The day had ended up going fine, and Kravitz was trying to focus on his work. He felt like he was doing a decent job at it, even if his thoughts would wander every so often. Even if certain little distractions kept popping up through the day, they were never  _ long. _ It was fine.

He guessed he wasn’t doing that great of a job though, because his mother had pulled him aside as the day was coming to an end.

“Dear, maybe you should take the day off tomorrow,” she said, and Kravitz immediately frowned at that.

“What? Why?” he asked, because he  _ really _ didn’t think it was that noticeable.

“How many times did Taako call you today?” she asked right back, and Kravitz could feel his face heating up at that.

The first call had been about an hour after he got to work. It had been quick, Taako just assuring him that he wanted to make sure the thing actually worked. It was reasonable enough, especially considering the twins hadn’t ever used one before. It had been a pleasant little surprise, but they didn’t stay on call for long before Kravitz had to go back to work.

The next one had been about two hours later. Kravitz had been worried for a moment as he answered, afraid something must have gone wrong. Wrong wasn’t exactly how he would describe it though, instead a simple question. Taako wanted to know if there were any extra keys they should use to lock the house with if they went to go explore some, or if they should just use magic. They would have to get the twins a set of keys, but Kravitz told him using magic for now was fine.

Then about another hour later, Taako called wanting to know ‘how much money was a lot of money?' When Kravitz tried to press him on details, the only thing he got was ‘like 200? They said it’s a good deal’ and the fae refusing to tell him what  _ exactly _ it was he was trying to buy. Or where he would have gotten any money from for this world at all.

Eventually Kravitz had to tell him that yes, 200 dollars was typically a lot when not talking about like, a house or a car or something like that. He had no idea if Taako had ended up buying whatever it was he’d been looking at.

Then Taako had called him back about five minutes later, asking if Kravitz had liked his lunch. It had been some sort of light roasted meat and vegetables and he had absolutely loved it.

“Four?” Kravitz answered, unable to keep himself from sounding as sheepish as he felt. “They’re just… still getting used to everything. They only have the house phone too, so they can’t text,” he tried to explain. For her part his mother didn’t look irritated, if anything she seemed amused.

“Right, so if you need an extra day to help them get settled it’s fine dear. This is a big change for them and I know how much you want to be there,” she said, and any of the arguments Kravitz wanted to make about how it was all fine died in his throat. His mother really did know him too well, and he was thankful for it.

“I guess a day wouldn’t hurt. You’re sure it’s fine?” he asked, and she immediately nodded.

“Of course, and I’m still expecting that dinner with all of you,” she said, and Kravitz smiled at that. Yeah, he knew how fond she was of Taako and Lup, this whole thing really shouldn’t surprise him.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to tell them to thank you for insisting,” he said, and she laughed a bit at that. Kravitz didn’t end up needing to tell them to thank her, as soon as he explained that she had suggested he take the next day off to help them adjust the twins were ecstatic. Of course, it also lead to Lup slumping against Barry as she begged for him to stay home tomorrow too, because it wasn’t  _ fair _ for him to be left out.

Barry reluctantly relented to letting his work think he woke up with a bad case of the stomach bug in the morning, and Lup was overjoyed.

That had been yesterday, and now Kravitz was trying to get ready for the day. They had brainstormed a couple of things to do with the twins to help them see more of this world and get a bit more acclimated to it. There were a few things they needed to definitely get them, and so they were planning on those first.

Kravitz was just finishing twisting his hair up into a bun when he heard a knock at his bedroom door. It didn’t sound like Barry’s knock, so that only left two options.

“Come in,” he called, and he’d barely finished the words when his door opened, Taako on the other side. He was already in his elven disguise, and he looked vaguely annoyed.

“Krav you gotta help me,” he said, and Kravitz quickly finished slipping on his shoes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, but instead of responding as soon as he was standing up Taako grabbed his arm. Kravitz let him drag him back towards the living room where Lup and Barry were already waiting.

“Tell Barold to stop giving my dear, sweet sister terrible advice,” Taako said, and when Kravitz looked at the two he couldn’t see anything wrong. Lup was also in her elven disguise, and looked more amused than anything. Before Kravitz could ask what advice Barry sighed.

“She doesn’t have to follow it. I just gave my opinion,” he said, sounding like this must’ve been an argument they’d been having for a bit. That was unsurprising, Kravitz always did take a lot longer than Barry to get ready, and the twins had magic. Part of the plan for today was to get them some clothes that weren’t just illusions over their very fancy fae outfits.

“Nope, but I am, because I trust your judgment,” Lup said, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if it was that she trusted Barry’s judgment or if she was just enjoying Taako’s reaction.

“Um, what’s actually the issue?” he asked, and Taako gave him a look like it was obvious before gesturing broadly at his sister once again.

“Lup wanted to know what kind of clothes would blend in, jeans are very common clothes. I don’t see what the problem is,” Barry explained, and Kravitz couldn’t help laughing at that. Lup’s elf disguise was indeed wearing a pair of blue jeans and an off the shoulder red sweater. She looked nice, if a bit more casual than Kravitz was used to either of the twins looking.

“Taako, I think this might be a losing battle,” he said, and Taako huffed in frustration. Kravitz couldn’t keep himself from freezing up a little when he suddenly slumped against him, clear annoyance still on his face.

“Ugh, I know you’re right but I’m not happy about it,” he grumbled.

“Would it make you feel better if I said you look very nice today?” Kravitz asked, the words escaping him before he could think. It was true though, his outfits a bit flashier than Lup’s. It had taken Kravitz a moment to realize that he was wearing a very flowy pair of shimmering purple pants and not a skirt, and a matching purple top. The jacket he had over top was a bit simpler, a dark green button up with a hood.

“Yes, actually it would,” Taako said with a grin. A very sharp grin.

“Teeth,” Kravitz said, and there was a flash of confusion before Taako realized what he meant. Raising a hand up that glimmer appeared over his mouth, and then his teeth appeared flat again.

“I always forget the fucking teeth,” he grumbled.

“Alright, we good to go?” Barry asked, pushing himself up from the couch. Lup immediately jumped up with him, looking excite.

“Hell yeah, I’m starving,” she said. Kravitz and Barry had insisted the twins not cook this morning, and sure there was no way it would be anywhere near as quality as the food they made, but they figured it would be good for the twins to get a taste of what was available in this realm.

So they were going to Denny’s.

The twins sat in the back while Barry drove, and Kravitz was in the passenger seat. It wasn’t a far trip to the Denny’s, which was part of the reason they chose it. It also seemed a pretty good choice if they wanted for like, a pretty solid average of food, before they actually got the twins some good stuff.

“Are there always this many people here?” Lup asked as they were brought over to a table. Kravitz was kind of surprised when Taako slid into the booth next to him instead of with his sister, but maybe he wanted to make it so that her and Barry had to sit together.

“It’s actually kinda slow right now from the look of it,” Barry said, and Kravitz nodded in agreement. It was definitely a busy time, but since it was a week day it wasn’t out of control or anything. From the looks on Taako and Lup’s face though that sounded pretty wild.

“Do places not get busy like this in your court?” Kravitz asked. They were trying to be on the down low with the whole fae thing, but he figured anyone bothering to listen in wouldn’t understand what they were talking about anyway. Taako shook his head, starting to inspect the menu.

“Not unless something real fucking important was going down,” he said, Lup nodding in agreement.

“There’s not really a  _ lot _ of us, ya know?” she said, which made sense. They were an immortal race living in a pocket dimension, it made sense to not have the numbers too high. Lup had started thumbing through the menu as well as she continued. “There was, what? Four hundred, five hundred at our trial Taako?” she asked, her brother shrugging.

“Something like that, and all of em assholes,” he said, and then he seemed to pause for a moment. “Well, most of em. Did you see aunty there Lup?” he asked, and Lup snorted in amusement.

“Oh yeah, she looked like she was about to tear the fucking High Council a new one,” she said, a grin on her face. It dipped some as she turned her attention back towards the menu. “Shame we didn’t get a chance to say bye,” she mumbled.

“Probably better. That way she doesn’t get dragged down too for ‘enabling’ us or whatever,” Taako answered quickly. As far as Kravitz knew neither of the twins had explained to either of them the exact reason they were kicked out yet. He figured it would be best not to push them, that they would be willing to explain in their own time.

“They brought five hundred people in to make you guys leave?” Barry asked, and Kravitz couldn’t blame him too much for that. It certainly seemed like a huge amount of people to be put on the spot in front of.

He couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like, having all of those people picking apart whether or not you were allowed to stay in the only place you’d ever known. Lup and Taako shared a look, and it was hard to tell what they were thinking.

“They brought in  _ everyone _ my dude, that was the whole court,” Taako said, and he supposed it made sense. If that was how many fae there were,it wouldn’t be impossible to gather them all. It just made him previous idea even more daunting though.

“Kicking someone out like that, it’s kinda a big deal. I don’t think it’s ever happened before, at least not like this,” Lup explained.

“Sorry,” Barry said softly, and there wasn’t much else to say at that. Lup gave him an appreciative smile, and Taako just shrugged, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Krav, I have a problem,” he added after another moment of staring at the menu. Kravitz hadn’t looked at his own that much, he generally got the same couple of things.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, not sure if he should be concerned or not. From the sound of it he doubted it was a very serious problem.

“Everything looks terrible and I want to try it  _ all,” _ he said, and Kravitz couldn’t help but laugh at that.

The solution they ended up coming up with was ordering as many different things as possible and sharing so that the twins could try whatever they wanted. It seemed to be pretty successful, the food going faster than Kravitz expected. He had been genuinely worried that they wouldn’t find anything they liked, that it would all be too different from the food they were used to, which was so refined and light.

“Krav, I’m never eating anything but pancakes ever again,” Taako said, looking almost starry eyed as they finished off the last of their breakfast. Kravitz couldn’t help snorting in amusement, and when Taako slumped up against him in the booth be barely even jolted.

“I sure hope that’s not true. We wanted to take you out to lunch too,” he said, and Taako hummed in response, looking like he was about to fall asleep. Considering the amount of carbs they’d just ate that made sense.

“Hmm, lunch can be more pancakes,” he mumbled.

“Wait till we introduce them to crepes,” Barry said, clearly having to hold back laughter. It took a little bit of coaxing to get the twins to get up and not just fall right to sleep in the booth, which actually.

“I didn’t know you could sleep,” Kravitz said as they headed to the car. He couldn’t help but miss Taako leaning against him, but he tried to push those thoughts down for now.

“We can, we just don’t need to,” Lup explained. Barry sighed longingly at that as he got the car started.

“Man, that would be nice,” he said, and Kravitz rolled his eyes. He couldn’t say he was surprised at Barry wishing he could get rid of his need to sleep.

They got the twins phones next, and that ended up being a pretty simple process. Him and Barry took care of most of it, since Taako and Lup didn’t have much context or any sort of established identities to attach a bill to. Thankfully there were a lot of four line family plans, so it seemed like their bill wouldn’t go up  _ too _ much with this. The twins were quick to insist they’d pay them back, but Barry and Kravitz both told them not worry about it for now.

Taako and Lup were quickly playing with their new phones as they got into the car, and Kravitz figured personal access to the internet would probably help them learn about this world a hell of a lot faster. They’d have to give them a sort of crash course on some general safety tips in that regard tonight though.

“So, what next?” Barry asked as they got back into the car.

“Clothes,” the twins answered in unison. The mall was a bit more of a drive, but Kravitz figured it offered a lot of options and different little things to see. The ride didn’t seem to be much of a problem, the two absorbed with learning all the inns and outs of their new phones.

They’d been driving for about five minutes when Kravitz noticed something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to look at the back seat he saw Taako had his phone held up, a grin on his face as it was pointed at Kravitz.

“Did you find the camera?” he asked in amusement.

“Maybe,” Taako answered in a way that meant he definitely had. Then a frown fell on his face as he started pushing at his screen again. “Wait, shit what did I do?” he asked, and Lup was looking over his shoulder now.

“I think it’s recording,” she offered. In response Taako held the phone back up so that it was pointed at Kravitz again.

“How do I get back to the camera? I’m recording this for prosperity,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t help the dumb smile on his face.

“Press the little red circle to stop the recording, and then click the camera,” he explained. From the looks of it Taako followed his directions and it worked, a grin back on his face.

He went to say something, but instead of words his mouth seemed to almost snap shut again. It was strange, but Kravitz could remember something similar happening the other morning. There was a flash of frustration over his face, but it was gone fast enough.

“Thank you,” he said finally, and Kravitz wasn't sure if he should ask about it. Before he could make up his mind Taako started taking more pictures again, and that distracted them. Thankfully he didn’t have a lot of time to take  _ that _ many more, the mall coming into view. Considering that the twins had been surprised by the crowd at the Denny’s, it was a good thing that they weren’t bringing them to the mall on a weekend. As it was, early on a weekday like this it definitely wasn’t that busy.

Heading inside, it seemed like a good choice. The twins wanted to check out every single store, even the objectively pretty terrible ones. There was plenty of clothes they seemed interested in, and Lup insisted on getting a few pair of jeans. At this point Kravitz was fairly certain it was purely to bother Taako. When Taako saw that he immediately had an offended look on his face, and Kravitz found himself following along when the fae grabbed his arm and started dragging him away.

“I’m going with Kravitz to find some actual good clothes,” he announced. Instead of trying to stop them or follow at all Barry just gave a thumbs up.

“Call if you need anything,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t help snorting in amusement at that.

“Will do,” he assured. By then Taako had pulled him out of the current store they were in, stopping once they were out and looking around.

“So, where to next?” Taako asked, and Kravitz shrugged, not all that sure.

“Do you really want to look at more clothes? Because we can do that,” he offered, but the fae shrugged. He already had a pretty large bag hanging around his shoulder, and Kravitz had sat outside of changing rooms and been made to give his opinion on each outfit. It was a pretty useless opinion, as far as he could tell Taako could make just about anything look good.

“Eh, if we find more we find more. This place have anything else you think would be cool?” he asked, and Kravitz thought for a moment. He found a smile start to work its way onto his face when an idea came to him, and he really hoped Taako liked this.

“I think I have something in mind? It might actually take a while though,” he said, and Taako didn’t seem daunted by that.

“Sure, show me how to do that texting thing so I can let Lup know,” he said. Kravitz did exactly that, sending his own text to Barry as they made their way through the mall. He was pretty sure it was this way, and he was trying not to look nervous. It didn’t take long to get there, and when he pointed out the place Taako immediately fell into a fit of laughter.

“The  _ fuck _ does ‘Chug n’ Squeeze’ mean? Cause can I say something? I love it already,” he asked, and Kravitz figured he’d just have to get used to being constantly aware of his heartbeat from now on whenever he was with Taako.

“It’s a wine and pottery place? Cause like, you chug the wine and squeeze the clay?” he tried to explain, and he couldn’t blame Taako for continuing to snicker. “If it’s too silly we don’t have-” he started, but Taako shook his head.

“Oh fuck that, we are doing this,” he said, starting to pull Kravitz along towards the front again. Before they could get inside Kravitz stopped.

“Wait, shit I forgot, you don’t have an ID,” he said, feeling kind of stupid. Taako gave him a confused look at that.

“What’s an ID?” he asked, and Kravitz pulled out his wallet.

“It’s basically a little card that shows your age and stuff. You need one to be able to drink alcohol,” he explained, holding up his own ID for the fae to see. Taako leaned forward, inspecting the card for a moment.

“So, something like this?” Taako asked, holding up a card that definitely hadn’t been in his hand before. It looked almost exactly like Kravitz’s, but the information and picture were all for Taako. All Kravitz could do was stare for a moment before bursting out laughing.

“Yeah, I’d say something exactly like that,” he said, Taako’s grin getting wider again.

“Hell yeah, let’s do this!” he said, rushing into the Chug n’ Squeeze. Kravitz quickly followed after him, unable to keep the smile off his face.

He was so in love with Taako it  _ hurt. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i think i'm still gonna be able to finish this fic in seven chapters, but it miiiight end up being eight or so. We'll have to see, I had to rearrange my outline somewhat because I ended up completely rewriting this chapter. I had it finished the other day but it was Wrong and I like this version much better, so we'll just have to see where it takes us. 
> 
> Also! The Taako art that I linked to a few chapters ago now has a companion piece with Lup [here](https://hannahkoga.tumblr.com/post/614272156991373312/wanted-to-do-a-companion-piece-to-faetaako-so) so please check out the beautiful girl. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

Taako rushed into this Chug n’ Squeeze place, Kravitz following along after him. Once he was inside though he stopped, waiting for Kravitz to actually talk to the people and figure out how this whole thing works. He was the one here who was learning how all this shit worked in this realm after all, he could sit back and watch.

It was basically what Kravitz had explained, a little place where you made pottery and drank wine. It looked pretty empty, but that didn’t bother him. He was kind of thankful for the dimly lit, quiet area. This world was a fucking lot, and he was loving it, but it was nice to get a break for a minute.

They were lead over to a couple of pottery wheels, and Taako did have to show off the little ID card when asked what drink he wanted. It seemed to work, and he ordered something that looked simple.

“I guess it’s kind of early for drinks, but,” Kravitz said with a shrug, and Taako nodded, splashing a little bit of water on his clay before starting to work it. He’d seen how this stuff was done before, but he’d never tried it himself. Thankfully Kravitz looked just as lost, and Taako wondered if this was actually his first time here or if he’d done this before.

“If it was too early for drinks they wouldn’t be offering them,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled a little at that. It didn’t take long for the server to come back with a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine, thankfully pouring the first cups for them. Taako wasn’t sure if this concept was very well thought out, considering the amount of wet clay already on his hands. It would have been so much easier to levitate the drink to his mouth, but it wasn’t  _ quite _ empty enough for him to feel safe risking something like that.

“So, how are you liking everything so far?” Kravitz asked once everything seemed to be set up, and it was a pretty good questions. Taako took a moment to think it over, starting to try and shape his wad of clay into a bowl.

“It’s sure as fuck different, but not in a bad way. Entertaining if nothing else, will probably take a while before I get bored,” he said, not sure what else to say. He still didn’t have any regrets, even if it had only been a few days. It felt like longer. Kravitz chuckled a little at that, looking pleased by that answer.

“That’s good, I know how easily you get bored,” he said, and Taako grinned at that. It was true, part of the whole fae thing. Constant stimulation was a given, it just so happened that most of the shit that entertained the rest of the court held absolutely no interest to him and Lup. Sure, grand parties could be fun, magic was fucking incredible, but as he built up some walls with his clay Taako was sure he preferred this. He liked getting his hands a little dirty.

“I know it’s probably pretty selfish of me to say this, but I’m really glad you’re here Taako,” Kravitz said after a moment. When he looked over at Kravitz he was staring down at his own clay, although Taako couldn’t tell what he was trying to make yet.

He really couldn’t put into words how fucking  _ unfair _ this was. When they threw that damn curse on him, he figured he could handle it, told himself that it would be so much worse for Lup anyway. Taako was already good at keeping this kind of shit to himself, he could let Kravitz take the reigns on this one. If that was even a thing he wanted, because he sure as fuck couldn’t be sure of that. They were friends, and when it had just been letters it was hard to tell if Kravitz had ever considered anything else.

_ Fuck _ did that change when they were actually in person though. When Taako just had to sit there while Kravitz looked at him like he hung the moon and go on saying things like  _ that. _

Taako had been so worried that Kravitz wouldn’t have felt the same way about him. But no, he was pretty damn certain that he did, and somehow that was so much worse.

“It’s cool if you’re selfish,” Taako said after a moment, taking a big swing of his wine to try and hide the way he was practically choking against the curse. Kravitz smiled, some obvious amusement on his face as he raised an eyebrow in question.

“Is it?” he asked, and Taako nodded sharply.

“Yeah, it’s- we’re- ya know, Lup and I? What we are, we’re naturally selfish as fuck,” he said, stumbling a little to avoid straight up saying the whole fae thing out loud. He didn’t give too much of a shit if they were found out, but it seemed to worry Kravitz and Barry, and he couldn’t help but feel some sort of obligation to all the rules he’d grown up with his whole life. “We rarely do shit if there’s not something in it for us too. Takes a lot of work for us to give a fuck about anyone else.”

Kravitz was quiet for a bit after that, and Taako was trying not to wonder what he was thinking about. Maybe he wasn’t thinking about anything, maybe he was just enjoying the wine and trying real hard to make a kinda lopsided vase.

“I wouldn’t have been able to tell,” Kravitz said finally, and Taako cocked his head a bit at that. He seemed to notice, quickly continuing. “That caring is hard for you guys. Just from everything I’ve seen, it’s pretty obvious that you both care a lot,” he explained, and Taako turned to focus back on his bowl.

He was  _ trying _ to be obvious. He couldn’t fucking say it and he couldn’t kiss him or hold him for too long, but he was doing everything else he could possibly think of to try and make it clear how he felt.

If Kravitz said it was obvious, maybe it was working.

Maybe he just had to try a little bit harder.

The server came around again by that point, and there were little hors d'oeuvre offered with the wine, which weren’t as good as pancakes but still decent enough. Taako liked this place, it was like it was pretending at being serious without any of the actual expectations. No one gave a crap when him and Kravitz’s conversation got too loud, or if their shit didn’t exactly turn out stellar. Or if at one point Taako gestured a bit too wildly while holding a glass of wine in his still clay covered hand and the thing slipped out of his grasp and ended up shattering on the floor.

Well, maybe they were a little annoyed by that last thing, but Kravitz apologized a lot and they didn’t let them help clean it up any anyway. By the time they finished their works it was getting later in the day, and Taako was starting to get hungry again despite all the little finger food.

“Lup and Barry said they’re at the food court,” Kravitz said as they were leaving the chug n squeeze. Taako wanted to reach out and take his hand as they walked, and he tried. Something kept his hand stuttering back though, and maybe it was the intention of the action. He’d been able to grab Kravitz and lead him around places, but this was just holding hands because he  _ wanted _ to, so apparently he couldn’t.

“I will relent in my earlier stance and try something other than pancakes,” Taako said as they made their way over to where the food is. Kravitz snorted at that, and yeah, Taako was not ever going to get over how much he liked making him laugh.

“Alright, well the food court will have a lot of different options, so hopefully we find another winner. I do have to be clear that this all isn’t the best food this realm has to offer by a long shot,” he said, and this wasn’t the first time Kravitz had made that clarification. Taako kind of figured, the food they had this morning definitely wasn’t that refined, didn’t seem to take a lot of skill to make. That didn’t mean it didn’t taste good though. There was definitely something to be said for something heavy and sweet.

“That ain’t even a bit of a problem if breakfast was any indication,” he said. They reached what Kravitz had called the food court, and Taako could see why now. There were a bunch of weird little stand areas that each seemed to have different types of food available. In the center of all that tables and chairs were strewn about, with people sitting and eating. There were a lot of places available, which indicated that this place got a lot busier than it was at the moment. Taako tried to imagine what it would look like full and decided yeah no, that wasn’t something he was real interested in seeing. With the amount of people that were here now though it wasn’t too hard to spot Lup and Barold.

“You guys took a while,” Lup said when they sat down, and Taako immediately elbowed her in the side.

“Look at the awesome bowl I made,” he said, showing off his creation. Lup looked more amused than anything, taking the clay bowl from him and looking it over.

“Not bad bro, looks good,” she said before handing it back, and Taako put it very carefully down on the table. He wanted to keep this bowl, it was awesome.

“Wait, did you guys seriously go to that Chug and Squeeze place? How much did you drink?” Barry asked, glancing at the bowl and the vase Kravitz was carrying.

“Just one bottle, you’re driving anyway,” Kravitz said dismissively, and Barry rolled his eyes at that. From what Taako could tell though he didn’t actually seem all that annoyed, and the topic quickly changed to what to get for lunch. There were a lot of options, but they were letting him and Lup pick since they were the ones new to this world. They settled on pizza, because that looked the weirdest and you could get a bunch of different things on top of it.

It ended up being pretty good. They got a lot and Kravitz and Barry seemed pretty surprised that they managed to finish the whole thing. As they ate Taako talked animatedly about the pottery place, telling Lup that her and Barold needed to get down there some time. Barry’s face got a delightful shade of red at the suggestion, which was hilarious and probably meant it was a date thing. It definitely seemed like one, with all the mood lighting and flowers on the tables, which-

Uh.

_ Huh. _

If Taako started taking a step back in the conversation after that realization, he was pretty sure no one noticed but Lup. She picked up the slack, telling him and Krav about what they had been up to off on their own. Apparently they found a nerd store and when she wanted to know what a bunch of the stuff was Barry had started pulling them up on her phone to show her the shows and shit it was all connected to. Or at least, the ones he knew and liked. Kravitz seemed to find this all very amusing.

“So, how are you guys feeling?” Barry asked once they had finished eating. “We can keep going if you want to or we can start heading back home,” he added, and Taako glanced over at his sister.

_ ‘Home?’ _ he heard Lup ask in his mind, and yeah, he was kind of feeling that right now. As cool as seeing all the shit this world had to offer was, it was a fucking lot to take in at once, and emotions kept being difficult.

_ ‘Home,’ _ he agreed. It was a little weird how  _ little _ they used this particular form of communication since they came here. It was a spell they had developed all on their own, specifically so they could talk to each other when they weren’t supposed to, or could check in to make sure the other was doing okay. It wasn’t needed here as much though, or maybe not at all. Still, old habits and all that.

“Eh, probably wouldn’t hurt to head back and chill some. Can’t have you spending all your money on us at once,” Taako said, Lup nodding in agreement. Sure, they planned on paying the two back, and they’d already worked up a couple of ideas between the two of them on ways to make some cash in this world. It probably wouldn’t be any sort of instant thing though.

Well, it  _ could _ be instant, but neither of them wanted Barry or Kravitz to get in trouble in case they messed up and didn’t get the details exactly right.

“Fair point,” Kravitz said, standing up and stretching somewhat. Taako found his eyes lingering on the human for a little bit longer than was strictly necessary. He’d already fallen for the guy well before he had any idea of what he actually looked like, so it really wasn’t fair that he was  _ that _ fucking hot. There was no need to be that hot.

The rest of the night really was chill. Kravitz and Barry spent a lot of time showing them how to work their phones, how the internet worked and how to make sure they didn’t completely break every electronic with access to the internet in their house by downloading the wrong thing. It didn’t seem all that complicated to Taako, but it was still good to get the whole run down.

Soon enough it was getting about the time Kravitz and Barry needed to get to sleep, and Taako didn’t complain too much about it. Even though he knew they both still had to work tomorrow, they said they had two days in a row off after that. He could be patient and let Kravitz live his own life and all that stuff.

It was hard though, cause he wasn’t lying when he told Kravitz that fae were selfish. He wanted Kravitz to spend  _ all _ his time with him. He wanted to have him entirely and he couldn’t because he couldn’t even say that was what he wanted.

Once the two went to get to sleep him and Lup went back to the guest room, or their room now he supposed. As soon as the door was shut behind them Taako groaned, going over and falling face first onto the bottom bunk. Lup came and sat down with him a moment later, patting the back of his head sympathetically.

“That bad huh?” she asked, and this wasn’t fair. He thought it would be worse for her and Barry because neither of them were able to admit shit to each other. That probably worked in their favor though, they’d be in the same exact position whether they had a curse on them or not.

“I think we went on a  _ date _ today Lulu! How the fuck am I supposed to handle that shit?” he whined. They had a spell on the door, made their room soundproof.

They still couldn’t  _ say _ it, even if it was just the two of them, but they both knew what they were talking about.

“I mean, that probably means he’ll say something soon, right?” she said, and Taako shrugged.

“I don’t know, maybe? What if he wants me to say it first? Or he’s one of those people who wait until like, a year into the relationship or something? I can’t  _ do _ that,” he said, rolling over so that he could actually look at his sister. “How the hell are you managing so well with Barold?” he asked, and she shrugged.

“It’s just… real nice being around him right now. We have time for everything else later,” she said, sighing as she started flipping through something on her phone. Pushing himself up so that he could see her screen, Taako guessed she’d figured out how to use the camera on hers as well. Here were several pictures of her and Barry together at the mall, probably from after him and Kravitz had cut off.

They looked cute. Taako couldn’t remember if he’d ever seen his sister that happy before. When he looked at her face now the longing there was palpable.

“And besides, I don’t even know for sure if he… ya know…” she added, shrugging. Taako glanced back down at the picture Lup had up now. It was her and Barry sitting in front of some fountain, and he guessed Barry was showing her how to use the camera, since he was the one taking the picture. It was kind of surprising how well the picture came out considering he wasn’t looking at the phone, instead over at Lup. 

It was so fucking obvious how in love he was with her. Taako didn’t say anything, and when Lup glanced over at him she could see the blunt disbelief on his face.

“Okay! Okay fine! It’s just hard to judge these things sometimes,” she huffed, her face all flustered and her ears twitching. After a moment she sighed, starting to flip through her pictures again.

“I’m just thinking of it like this, if he’s the one who has to say it then I figure I don’t have to worry about it so much. Out of my hands, it’ll happen when it happens and I’m going to enjoy every minute I have with him no matter what,” she said, and Taako wanted to argue. He didn’t even know  _ what _ he wanted to argue, because Lup was right. There really wasn’t anything they could do but that, so he should be fine accepting it.

“I’m just fucking pissed that they took away that choice. Maybe  _ I _ wanted to be the one to-” his mouth clamped shut, blocking off everything he  _ wanted _ to say. That maybe  _ he _ wanted to be the one to get to romance Kravitz, to actually get over his emotional constipation and tell him how much he cared about him. How much he  _ wanted _ to care about him and how somehow a thing he shouldn’t even be capable of turned into the easiest thing in the world with him.

“Maybe I wanted to be the one to say it first,” he mumbled after a moment, sitting up some as he got his words back. He appreciated Lup wrapping an arm around his shoulders, giving him a comforting squeeze. This wasn’t exactly his normal M.O., she could tell how much this was bothering him.

“I know, you hate it when other people manufacture your character development,” she said, and even though it sounded like a joke and it kind was a joke it was still true. It just so happened that Taako and Lup learned most of the junk they they about this world from either the letters Kravitz and Barry sent them, or books. A lot of how people’s emotions worked in general were from those books.

It wasn’t that fae didn’t  _ have _ emotions, because they definitely did. They just didn’t tend to have attachments, bonds to connect those emotions to.

They were  _ always _ going to be at a disadvantage compared to other fae. They were Taako  _ and _ Lup, twins. That bond wasn’t going away and apparently once you have one it was a lot easier to get others. Not that Taako was complaining about any of that, he didn’t mind that part.

He was just pissed that he couldn’t control what he  _ did _ with this bond now.

Well, if he couldn’t control it, maybe he could at least give it a little nudge.

The next day Taako let Kravitz go to work without much complaining. He’d already agreed to stay at the house until next week, since apparently Kravitz couldn’t bring people in to work whenever he wanted. Barry didn’t leave too long after Kravitz did, and Taako waved him off with Lup as well.

These phone things were super handy. Taako was a pretty big fan of the internet in general so far, it was even faster than using magic to sort through the libraries back home. Plus, there was so much more on it than just  _ books. _

It was a little frustrating when he couldn’t actually write out the exact questions he wanted answers to. He found some site where you asked shit and people gave advice. Except Taako couldn’t write ‘How do I tell the dude I love that I love him without words?’ or ‘Best way to confess feelings towards someone with actions’ or anything along those lines.

He ended up writing ‘How to tell Very Sweet best friend they are Good Better than all of that without using words that start with L and are Positive only actions and gifts No Kissing Or Hugs :(’

Definitely not the most legible sentence he’d ever written, but this was what he was fucking reduced to apparently.

He got a few replies on it throughout the day, most of which didn’t seem particularly spectacular. There were a few alright ones though, or at least things he could maybe salvage into something usable.

Despite how impatient he was, Taako didn’t want to rush this. He could have set it for tomorrow, that was Kravitz’s next day off. They were already having his mom over then though, and he wanted to get this right. It felt too important to throw together last minute.

So, at some point in the day Taako sent Kravitz a text asking him if he had off every ‘Saturday’ like this. He said he had most of them off yes, unless there was some sort of emergency. That would have to be good enough for him.

All he had to do was wait a week.

God, it was going to feel like a fucking eternity. At the very least though it would give him enough time to make this all perfect. Make it so that there was no fucking doubt what he was trying to say, even if he couldn’t be explicit about it.

When Kravitz got home from work that day Taako was in an even better mood than he had been lately. No one asked, but he was pretty sure Kravitz and Barry noticed at least somewhat. Lup already knew, she had been reading over his shoulder every moment she wasn’t watching some weird drawn shown that Barry had started showing her while they had been on their own at the mall. Taako couldn’t follow along at all from the bits and pieces he’d overheard, but he knew for a fact that she had a pretty good idea about what he was dealing with.

Taako tried to put that out of his mind the next day though. He had a week to work everything out after all, and today was pretty important. Their mom was coming over, and Taako had already met the lady once but she hadn’t seen Lup yet. Also, from the small amount of time he had seen her Taako decided he liked her.

She had definitely been a better guardian for Kravitz and Barry than most of theirs had been for them. Sure, they liked their aunt, and she’d accepted that they weren’t ever gonna fit to fae standards. She’d been bound by the court as much as everyone else had been though, and there wasn't anything anyone could do about that.

“Does your mom have any sort of allergies?” Taako asked as he sat at the dining room table. It was covered in old mail and bits of papers from Kravitz and Barry’s respective jobs. They’d have to clean that up later. Kravitz looked up from his phone at that, a somewhat confused look on his face.

“Not really, why?” he asked. Things had been pretty quiet today, Kravitz and Barry wanted to clean up the house before their mother came over tonight. No one had done that good of a job of that yet, but Kravitz had started on the living room. He’d apparently gotten distracted by something Lup had sent him though. Lup was getting a kick of being able to send people pictures she found online, even if she was right in the other room and could walk over and show them like a normal person.

“Because we’re cooking for her tonight. I already knew your allergies,” he said, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that.

“You do?” he asked, and Taako nodded. He had a notebook out in front of him and was writing out recipe ideas. The only thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to show off with a meal he was comfortable with, instead of trying any of the new food he’d tried in this realm.

“Yeah, asked in a letter like, three years ago,” Taako explained.

“Huh. I completely forgot about that,” Kravitz said, and Taako shrugged. He’d also asked for Barry’s, and it had been a dumb thing to do at the time. They couldn’t risk sending something as large as food to them, and they sure as fuck didn’t think they could actually get to come  _ visit _ them or anything like that yet.

He liked to imagine cooking for them though, and he’d just read that mortals sometimes had things like ‘allergies.' Certain foods or particles that were fine to most humans, but could make others sick or even die. If Taako ever  _ did _ get the chance to cook for his friends, the last thing he ever wanted to do was accidentally kill them.

“We’ve written a fuckton of letters my dude,” he said, and Kravitz snorted at that, nodding in agreement.

“You’re not wrong about that. It still feels a little weird, not writing you a letter. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself on Thursdays anymore,” Kravitz said, and Taako couldn’t get but grin at that.

“I mean, I’m sure my night’ll be open,” he said, pleasantly surprised that he’d actually managed to say that one. He was a little worried that the curse would stop him. But it hadn’t, and the flustered look on Kravitz’s face was very appreciated.

“That’s true. Certainly wouldn’t change this for anything,” he said, standing back up again and looking focused on cleaning again. Taako wanted to keep prodding, keep pushing as much as this dumb curse would let him.

He reluctantly let it go this time though. He had a plan now, he could wait the week to actually do it. More important things tonight anyway.

He just had to get through a week and then  _ hopefully, _ Kravitz would get what he was trying to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You would think i would know at this point if there is going to be one or two chapters left of this fic, but i am a fool and have no idea. Probably gonna be two chapters left actually, but there's the off chance that it'll be just one long chapter. Kinda doubt that though, but I'll hold off on changing the chapter count for now just in case it is. Either way, I'm still having a lot of fun with these pining boys and i appreciate all y'all coming along on this ride with me. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed~


	7. Chapter 7

Dinner with their mother had ended up going surprisingly well, all things considered. Kravitz had to remind the twins to put on their disguises about ten minutes before she showed up, but he was pretty sure that was simply because the two had been so absorbed in cooking. Kravitz was a little surprised at how eager they seemed to impress his mother, but it certainly wasn’t a bad thing. It was actually pretty endearing.

Of course, he was sure it wasn’t all that necessary either. He could tell that she had been just as excited to meet Lup and Taako as they were her. After all the years she’d gone of hearing nothing but positive things from him and Barry they would have to work fairly hard not to be on her good side. There had been a few times growing up that Kravitz remembered her asking if they were ever planned on visiting. He'd always brushed the question aside, but he guessed this all wasn't that surprising for her.

The point was that he was certain that first impressions, or second impressions in Taako's case, were't going to be much of an issue. Kravitz thought that the two had been pulling out all the stops the other times they’d cooked for them, but apparently that wasn’t anywhere close to true. The spread they ended up making looked like it belonged at some sort of elaborate thanksgiving dinner for thirty people, rather than a small family dinner for five. Not that he was going to complain, far from it. Especially once he got a chance to actually taste some of the food instead of only peaking in hungrily from the kitchen doorway. He was pretty sure he would be perfectly happy living off of these leftovers for the rest of his natural life.

Their mother had complimented the cooking profusely between asking the twins questions. Nothing super prying, Kravitz could tell she was trying to be sensitive, even if she wasn’t always the best at talking to living people. There was a reason she'd run a morgue for so long, the situations you interacted with people in there tended to be rather uniform. There was a very specific procedure done and lines for what was or wasn’t off limits.

Still, she'd definitely developed a talent for picking up the mood of other people. Her questions were mostly harmless, how were they liking the area so far? Was there anything they wanted to see? Were Kravitz and Barry being good hosts? She insisted they answer this one honestly and she’d make sure to fix any sort of issues if they weren’t.

Thankfully, the twins had deemed them worth hosts and assured her there was nothing she needed to take care of. Kravitz had never been afraid of his mother, but from how immediately she cared for the twins he was sure he would need to be if she thought they weren't taking care of them.

The only questions that was somewhat prying into uncomfortable territory was when she asked them about the food. They were such excellent cooks, had they ever taken classes? Were they interested in pursuing it as a career?

Kravitz supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised that the twins managed to navigate those questions with ease as well. They’d had years of practice at, well not  _ lying. _ They were usually trying their best to avoid actual lies as much as possible. Instead, they were great at stretching the truth. Giving just enough information in just the right way that it wasn’t technically a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. Where it all sounded like a perfectly reasonable thing instead of, well, the fact that they were fae technically from another dimension.

He supposed it helped that Taako and Lup were just as eager to ask their own questions, obviously delighted to get the chance to pry for information on him and Barry. Their mother was just as happy to talk about them. It was certainly nice seeing the three get along so well, even if there were quite a few times where Kravitz would have liked to crawl under the table.

By the end of the night though Kravitz supposed he’d ended up laughing as much as everyone else. Sure, most of his laughter had been on the more Barry centered stories, but it counted.

Still, the night had gone well. Very well. The twins and their mother both seemed pleased as punch by each other, and when she went to leave Taako and Lup had piled an extraordinary amount of leftovers onto her. There was still a frankly unreasonable amount of food left for them as well, and Kravitz still couldn’t get over that.

As soon as their mother had left Taako went and flopped down on the couch.

“Okay, you two can deal with putting the rest away, I'm not moving from this spot” he said, spread out as much as he could manage. Kravitz snorted at that, not bothered in the least.

“Yeah alright, get some rest. You two have certainly done more than enough today,” he said, and Lup had come over to the couch now as well. Kravitz couldn’t help laughing when she went and laid down right onto her brother, not budging at all at his attempts at shoving her off.

Kravitz left them to that, heading into the kitchen to pack up the leftovers and try and jigsaw some way to fit them all in the fridge. Barry joined him after a moment, helping to find tupperware containers and the like.

“Well, I think that went well,” he said after a moment, and Kravitz nodded in agreement. From the fridge he could make out the forms of the twins through the doorway poking out from behind the couch. It was hard to tell if they were listening in or not from over there, especially turned away like they were.

“I’m not surprised, mom had been pretty excited to meet them all week,” he said, since it was true. Sure, she’d met Taako a bit, but Kravitz knew she wasn’t really able to let herself relax when she was at work.

It took a while to get all the food put away, and they were just about done when Kravitz heard a small yelp from living room, followed by a victorious ‘Ha!’ from Lup. When he glanced back he could see Taako picking himself up off the floor, and it looked like both twins had dropped their disguises at this point. Taako seemed to quickly notice him watching, giving him an exaggerated pleading look.

“Krav, I’m being bullied,” he complained. Kravitz snorted, and Barry was fitting the last of the gravy in on the door so he figured it was fine to leave.

“I think you’ll survive,” he said. Taako was still pouting, and it was unfairly hard to not just wrap his arms around the fae. He wondered if Taako would even mind if he did that. He was a very touchy person from everything Kravitz had seen so far, so maybe he wouldn’t think twice about it.

Then Lup was standing up from the couch, swatting her brother’s braid and any sort of chance Kravitz might have had before seemed pretty well gone.

“You’re no help at all,” Taako complained. Not that he actually seeming all that bothered considering the smile still stubbornly clinging to his face.

“I could go get Barry as a distraction,” Kravitz offered, not feeling that bad about the flustered look on Lup’s face. Taako immediately started snickering, which only got worse when Barry actually came into the room.

“Who am I distracting?” he asked, clearly no idea what was going on. 

“No one Bear, these two are being idiots,” Lup said quickly. Barry glanced back over at him and Taako, a nonplussed look on his face before shrugging.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” he said. Even though Kravitz was used to that sort of reaction from his brother it was very amusing seeing Taako’s offended look.

“Excuse you, rude my dude,” he huffed.

They didn’t have to work tomorrow either, so the four of them ended up staying awake until pretty late once again. Sure, it was pretty typical for both him and Barry to stay up late into the night working on their own things, but there was something so different about spending the time together like this. It was nice, Kravitz wasn’t sure he’d realized just how little time he spent around other people before this. He guessed it made sense, they’d never been very social to begin with. There was a reason why their closest friends had lived what they thought was hundreds of miles away.

It was a good change of pace, and over the next week Kravitz found himself falling more and more comfortably into it. He had to follow through on his promise to let Taako come with him to work on Monday, the fae waiting by his door again with an expectant grin on his face. Once again the whole experience had been much more pleasant than Kravitz expected. His mother was excited to see Taako again, and Kravitz had even managed to get most of his work done.

Honestly, Taako was more distracting when he  _ wasn’t _ with him at work. Throughout the rest of the week Kravitz found himself with texts from the fae all through the day. It was incredibly easy for him to take a few moments to stop and type up a quick response back. Which sometimes led to more responses from Taako and then ten minutes had passed with absolutely nothing getting done but Kravitz giggling at his phone like some sort of lovestruck teenager.

It was honestly pretty damn hopeless. He should be better than this.

He told himself that this was probably a good thing though. Taako seemed happy, it looked like they were adjusting well to this new world. He figured that yes, of course there would be a bit of a learning curve over the first few weeks, not only for Taako and Lup but for himself and Barry as well. It wouldn’t take too long before he acclimated to the twins being around. Once that happened he could and a little less time during the day huddled over his phone completely absorbed in whatever ancient meme Taako had managed to dig up and send to him.

The week ended up going by faster than Kravitz expected, and he was thankful when it was Saturday again. He was pretty sure his mother could tell, and he was genuinely surprised she hadn’t commented on it yet. He was certain she was trying to offer him the same kind of adjustment period as she was offering Taako and Lup.

It was the only real explanation for why she hadn’t called him out on his obvious crush yet.

They didn’t have any sort of big plans for this weekend. Whenever Kravitz had tried to ask about setting some up the twins had sort of blown him off. He wasn’t sure what that was about, but he figured they were still getting used to the amount of people who were around in this world. Him and Barry had warned them that places tended to be even busier on the weekends, and neither of them seemed all that enthused by the idea. 

So Kravitz really hadn’t been expecting much. He definitely hadn’t expected a knock on his bedroom door before he’d even properly woken up. It didn’t sound urgent, so he gave a vague affirmative grunt to let whoever was on the other side know he was alive as he got out of bed. He’d only barely stood up, having thrown  _ off _ his blanket but not yet thrown  _ on _ a shirt when the door opened, Taako peaking inside.

There was a short moment where the fae didn’t say anything, and then he opened his mouth only to shut it right back again almost immediately. It’d happened enough times by now that Kravitz waited for a few seconds, and then Taako began to properly speak.

“Hey, you don’t have work today, right?” he asked, and Kravitz shook his head. They’d already been over that though, so he doubted that was the only reason Taako had woken him up.

“No, I’m free today. How come?” he asked, having to fight back a yawn. For some reason Taako looked almost nervous, which went and made Kravitz nervous. 

“Was just wondering if you wanted to hang out,” he said, and Kravitz actually snorted at the question. It seemed funny, he hadn’t thought that was something Taako would need to ever  _ ask _ him. He figured it was pretty damn obvious.

“Yes actually, I had kind of thought that was already the plan,” he said, and Taako nodded. He still hadn’t come fully into the room yet, seeming to almost hide behind the door as he spoke, only his head and his hand very clearly visible.

“Oh well, yeah no duh it was the plan. I just meant like, uh, I think Lup and Barold are gonna be doing their own thing, so,” he said, and Kravitz blinked as he processed that for a moment. He hadn’t heard anything about that, but it was possible that it was all Lup’s idea. Actually, it was incredibly probable that it was.

“Oh,” Kravitz said, kind of surprised. “Do you think they’re going to break already?” he asked, unable to hide his amusement. Some of the weird nervousness that had been in Taako seemed to leave at that, and he grinned.

“I mean, we can only fucking hope, am I right?” he said, and Kravitz snorted. Taako was right about that, even if he was fairly sure Barry’s brain might irreversibly break if Lup outright kissed him. 

“That you definitely are,” he said with a grin, stretching his arms up above his head and hearing a rather satisfying crack in his back as a result. “Well, in that case I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to, uh, getting out of their hair and all that,” he said. Taako’s grin somehow got even wider at that, and he nodded sharply.

“Hell yeah, I thought so,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t blame him for that. As much as they both teased their respective siblings, it would be really nice to see them actually happy like that. He could imagine that Taako might have done some not so subtle pushing to get Lup to do something like this. “Get dressed then, and wear something nice!” Taako added as he left the doorway, and Kravitz couldn’t help but pause at that.

“Oh? Did you have something planned?” he asked, unable to keep the delighted amusement out of his voice as he called after the fae. Taako turned back to face him in the hallway, his smile all pointed teeth.

“I might have looked up a few things to kill some time,” he said, and his amusement really was infectious.

“Alright, well if you already went through the trouble,” Kravitz said. Heading back into this room and closing the door, Kravitz quickly went through his closet. He figured Taako wanted to get a move on pretty fast, at least from the way he acted it was clear he wanted to get a jump on this. Kravitz scanned through his clothes, trying to figure out what he meant by ‘nice.' Taako’s fae clothes were all very nice, but also a level of elaborate that wouldn’t be socially acceptable in most casual settings. Kravitz wasn’t sure if he even owned anything that lived up to quite that type of style. He almost wished he did, even though he couldn’t think of a single place to wear something like that.

It was a good thing that Kravitz didn’t have the time to over think his outfit choice (not that he wasn’t giving his best attempt anyway). He ended up going with a black button up shirt and black slacks, with a few red accents. It was nice but not overly dressy and was about as adult as he could manage while still having never quite grown out of his goth phase.

Heading out of his bedroom Taako was already waiting for him in the living room. He was wearing another one of the outfits he’d gotten during their last excursion, an off the shoulder stripped shirt with black skinny jeans (there had been a bit of an argument on if they actually counted as jeans or not. Everyone but Taako had said yes, they were still jeans because they were made of denim. Taako had said they weren’t because he ‘felt that shit in his soul'). He was also in his elven disguise, and Kravitz was sure he would never get over just how beautiful he was.

“So, you said you had some ideas for today?” he asked. Taako nodded, quickly finishing up whatever he’d been writing on his phone before standing up with a grin.

“Yeah, but I figured breakfast first?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded. Now that he was up and moving around he was certainly starting to feel hungry.

“Right, that sounds great,” he said, and he grabbed his keys as they started heading towards the door. “Taako and I are going out for breakfast! Be back later!” he called back towards the rest of the house.

“Oh, okay!” Kravitz just managed to hear Barry call back before shutting the door. Taako was almost bouncing as they made their way to the car, and Kravitz wondered if all fae had as much restless energy or if it was purely a Taako and Lup thing.

“So, where to for breakfast? My vote is for Denny’s again but I can be persuaded otherwise,” Taako said, and Kravitz snorted a little at that. He thought the question over as he started the car.

“There’s a little cafe not too far from here. It shouldn’t be as busy as Denny’s will be and the food is a bit higher quality,” he said, pausing as an idea came to him. “Have you ever actually had coffee?”

“Can’t say I have, don’t think fae really need it,” Taako said, and maybe it was a bad idea. Still, Kravitz found himself curious.

“Well, they have excellent coffee as well, if you’d like to try some,” he said, and the grin that spread over Taako’s face probably meant it definitely wasn’t a good idea.

“Hell yeah then, lead the way,” Taako said, leaning back in his seat. It didn’t take long to reach the cafe, a little brunch place that Kravitz had discovered some time after they first moved out. He didn’t come often, but he enjoyed it when he remembered it existed.

Once inside Kravitz helped Taako order, making sure he didn’t get anything with too much caffeine in it. He also got a crepe while Kravitz got a pretty simple breakfast sandwich with hash browns.

“It’s hard to believe you’ve been here for almost two weeks now,” Kravitz said as they waited for their food to arrive. The drinks had already arrived and it seemed that so far Taako was a fan of the coffee. Kravitz had suggested he go with something sweet, where you could barely taste the coffee and slowly expand from there. 

“Yeah no, it’s gone by real fucking fast,” Taako said, drumming his fingers along the edges of his cup. If Kravitz paid attention the sound of the clicks didn’t quite match up to when Taako’s nails appeared to hit it, his actual fingers a bit longer than the illusion showed.

“Do you think it’s sunk in yet? That you’re here for good?” he found himself asking, because despite everything it didn’t seem to be a topic Taako or Lup shied away from all that much. The fae shrugged, taking another sip of his drink before speaking.

“I guess, probably as much as it’s going to at least. I definitely don’t think I’m ever gonna have like, a fucking breakdown because I can’t go back,” he said, and Kravitz figured that was reassuring. It was good to know that Taako wasn’t going to regret this decision.

It was just that… throughout all of this, it felt like there was something he was holding back. Well no, it was obvious that there was. Of course Taako didn’t have to tell him anything, but he wanted him to be able to talk to him too.

Before either of them could say anything else though the food arrived. Taako’s mood changed from somewhat contemplative and quiet to extremely excited, and as always it was infectious watching him. He definitely liked the food, and Kravitz wasn’t too sure if a second cup of coffee was a good idea, but Taako insisted it would be fine. Kravitz didn’t argue, instead watching with mild amusement.

“Can I ask you something Taako?” Kravitz asked as they slowly finished off the last of their food. Taako nodded, not able to speak around the last bit of crepe he’d shoved into his mouth. Hesitating a moment, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least ask. “Why did you decide to come here? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, and I know you talked about it a little before. I was just curious about what was so important to leave your whole  _ life _ behind like that.”

The casual ease that had been in the fae before seemed to drain out of him, and maybe it was a bad idea to press on this. Kravitz was trying to be careful not to hit a nerve, of course the whole reason for them getting kicked out would still be a sensitive topic, no matter how much Taako tried to play it off like it wasn’t.

Except he didn’t look particularly mad. If anything after a moment of surprise he looked conflicted. He opened his mouth to say something, only to have to snap it shut like he had those other times. And then again, whatever he was trying to say dying in his throat, and then a third attempt before Taako let out a groan of frustration.

_ “Fuck,” _ he huffed, and Kravitz couldn’t help from frowning in concern now.

“Taako, is everything okay?” he asked, and without thinking Kravitz found himself reaching forward and putting his hand over where Taako’s was bunched up into a fist on the table. It seemed to snap the fae out of his anger at least, Taako looking at him with surprise and annoyance and something else Kravitz was maybe a little afraid to place. After a moment he sighed and nodded, his hand loosening some under Kravtiz’s. He didn’t try and take it, but he didn’t pull away either.

“Yeah, no everything’s fine Krav,” he said, and Kravitz was sure that wasn’t true. It was obvious that  _ something _ was wrong, Taako was not a very good liar.

“You know you can tell me anything, right Taako?” he asked, and he was trying not to press him. He just wanted to _ be there _ for him.

Kravitz didn’t know what to think of from the bitter laugh Taako gave him, especially combined with the gentle smile and the way he continued to not pull away from him.

“Yeah, yeah I know Krav,” he said, and something about the way he said it wasn’t the least bit reassuring. It was quiet for a moment, and then with a sigh and a smile that didn’t seem entirely natural Taako stood up. His hand slipped out from under Kravitz’s at that moment and he tried not to focus on how much he missed that warmth.

“Well, I had quite a few ideas for today, so how about we hop to it, huh?” he asked, and Kravitz couldn’t trust how much that enthusiasm was real, but considering how he was this morning he doubted it was all fake. He really hoped it wasn’t all fake. He didn’t press him on it though, instead offering him a smile as well as he stood up.

“Of course, just point me in a direction and I’ll take us there,” he said, and the grin Taako gave him at that definitely seemed genuine. Kravitz tried to focus on that as he followed him back out to the car.

“That’s my intention alright,” Taako said, and as they got into the car Kravitz could see that he was already poking at his phone again. After a moment he must have gotten to what he wanted, holding the screen up so that Kravitz could see. He couldn’t help but laugh when he saw their intended next destination.

“What do you need from _ Walmart?”  _ he asked, already starting to drive off in the direction of the store anyway.

“It said they sell fishing stuff there, and there’s a lake at this uh, this park here. It’s not too far is it?” he asked. When they stopped at a red light Kravitz glanced over at Taako’s phone again to see the park he was talking about.

“No, that’s not too far. You really want to go  _ fishing? _ ” he asked, still feeling a little surprised by the idea.

“Uh, yeah I wanna go fishing,” Taako assured, and then he hesitated slightly. “But if you’re not into it we don’t gotta-” he started, and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“No, no, we can do that. I was just surprised, it doesn’t seem like something you’d be into,” he said, trying to remember if Taako had ever mentioned liking fishing in any of his letters before.

“Well I’m full of surprises,” Taako said, and that got another laugh out of Kravitz.

“You’re not wrong there,” he said, his voice coming out so much fonder than he intended. If Taako noticed he didn’t say anything, turning to stare out the window as they drove. It was quiet in the car, and Kravitz couldn’t quite tell if it was comfortable or not anymore.

He just wished Taako would talk to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i ended up being wrong, this will probably be 8 chapters (maybe eight chapters with an epilogue.... probably eight chapters with an epilogue actually let's just get that squared away now). This fic is ending up so much longer than i originally intended but all my favorite fics to write always do, so no complaints here. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	8. Chapter 8

As soon as they got out of the car at the Walmart parking lot Taako paused, and Kravitz could see the sudden look of uncertainty on his face.

“Holy fuck this place is crowded,” the fae said, and Kravitz couldn’t blame him for that. It was still before noon, but it was the weekend and the parking lot was pretty packed.

“We can go somewhere else for fishing stuff if you want. I’m sure I can look up a smaller shop,” Kravitz tried to offer, but Taako quickly shook his head.

“No, no it’s chill dog, I’ll get used to it,” he said, and then there was this look on his face. He seemed like he was contemplating something hard, biting his lip somewhat as he thought. Then he held out a hand in Kravitz’s direction. “Hand,” he said simply, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that.

“Um, yes?” he said, and Taako rolled his eyes. Something about the way he spoke next made it seem like he was trying to choose his words carefully.

“No, that’s- give me yours. So that we don’t get separated,” he said, and Kravitz felt a little dumb at having to have it spelled out for him like that. He was thankful blushes didn’t show up well on his skin as he took Taako’s outstretched hand, starting together into the store.

“Fishing stuff should be this way,” Kravitz said once they were inside, leading Taako back towards the sports supplies. Honestly, Kravitz did not spend a lot of time in that section, but he usually walked past it if they ever needed to grab any hardware stuff. As they walked Taako would get distracted and end up stopping every few feet, especially when they had to pass through some of the kitchen supplies.

“The fuck is this? I want ten,” Taako said, and when Kravitz looked over at what Taako was inspecting he couldn’t help bursting out laughing. 

“I don’t think you need ten slapchops Taako,” he said, but the fae just shrugged, putting the device back. Kravitz filed the little thing away in his head, but he figured Taako wasn’t too invested at the moment, walking away without any sort of issue.

“You don’t know. Cooking is mysterious,” he said, and Kravitz snorted at that. Still, he didn’t argue, and it didn’t take too much longer for them to get to the sports section and find the aisle full of fishing poles and lures and other things Kravitz figured were for fishing but he had no idea what they actually did. This aisle was pretty empty, they were actually the only two in it. Despite that Taako didn’t let go of his hand as he looked through the fishing poles.

“So, most of these look pretty shitty but I figure we don’t need great ones anyway. We probably won’t catch that many since it’s already later in the day,” Taako said, and Kravitz supposed that made sense.

“Want to just grab two of these and some lures?” he asked, picking one a somewhat decent looking but still cheap fishing pole. Taako nodded, grabbing one as well. Kravitz didn’t know much about lures, but Taako picked the shiniest ones he could find, and then they headed up to the counter. Kravitz definitely noticed when the cashier glanced down at their hands, but Taako hadn’t let go yet and maybe it was for the wrong reasons but Kravitz wasn’t going to either. Thankfully they didn’t say anything, and soon enough they were heading out and back to the car.

Kravitz had to let go of his hand to actually drive, but Taako had only wanted to hold hands to keep from getting separated anyway. He tried not to show any sort of disappointment as he quickly put in the directions to the lake on his phone.

“How do you think Barry and Lup are doing?” Kravitz asked as he started to drive, wanting to talk and going for the safest topic. Plus, he was kind of curious if Taako had any idea what the two had been planning. The fae chuckled at the question, an amused smile on his face as he seemed to think it over for a moment.

“Who knows? I know for a fact that Lup hasn’t said shit yet though,” he said, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that. He didn’t look over at Taako though, keeping his eyes on the road.

“You don’t think she’ll be the first to confess?” he asked, and Taako snorted. It didn’t sound all that amused though, Kravitz couldn’t place what it was.

“Absolutely not,” he said, the utmost certainty in his voice. Kravitz hummed, kind of surprised by that. Lup was definitely the more forward of the two, Kravitz had always kind of assumed that when the two finally confessed she’d be the one leading that. Taako knew his sister better than anyone though, so he probably had a good idea about this. With how certain he sounded right now there had to be a reason for that.

“Huh, they might be waiting a while then. Well, unless Barry just ends up blurting it out. I swore he was going to after the whole beautiful thing,” he said, and Taako chuckled at that.

“Yeah, they’re hopeless,” he said, and a few minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot. It was a decent sized park, with a small lake in the middle that Taako was right about it being used for fishing. It seemed like a pretty popular day to be there, but not overwhelmingly so. Taako grabbed the fishing rods as soon as they were out of the car, and Kravitz followed him with the lures as they looked for a place to set up. Thankfully it seemed like a lot of people weren’t here for the fishing, so it didn’t take too long to find a shady spot under a tree along the edge of the lake.

“I have no idea how to fish,” Kravitz said, taking his fishing pole when Taako handed it to him. The fae laughed, a wide grin on his face as he grabbed his own fishing rod and started to dig through the lures.

“Yeah alright, just follow along then homedog,” Taako said, and Kravitz did just that. He went along with the steps he laid out, and they weren’t that complicated especially broken down like this. It took a few tried before Kravitz managed to actually cast out very far, but soon enough they were technically fishing.

“And now we just wait,” Taako said. Kravitz nodded, turning to look out over the calm lake.

Kravitz wanted to reach over and take Taako’s hand again. He wanted to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him into a kiss but every time he glanced over at the fae he was sitting casually a short distance away, staring out at the lake.

Kravitz wasn’t all that great at judging time, but it probably hadn’t been as long as it felt like it’d been when Taako sat up some. He watched as the fae positioned his fishing rod so that it was sitting in the crook of his elbow.

“Oh right, I’ve been meaning to show you. Guess what I found when we were cleaning out that guest room of yours,” Taako said, and Kravitz could see him do a quick glance around them to make sure no one was looking. Then his arm seemed to go into some sort of rip in space, and he’d seen Taako use something like that before.

“God, I don’t know, we had so many things shoved in there. I still can’t believe you both cleaned it that fast, even with magic,” he said, and then Taako pulled out a stack of crinkled papers from that pocket dimension, the hole closing up as soon as his hand was out. Taking one, Kravitz already had a good idea what exactly these were, but he couldn’t help but laugh when he was proven correct.

“Oh wow, I knew I had these somewhere. How  _ old _ are some of these?” he asked, flipping through some of the old letters Taako had sent him. He’d kept all of them, it felt wrong to throw them out, and sometimes he’d like to go back and read them. Some more than others, but it had been a very long time since he’d gone back to some of the oldest ones. Taako was grinning, flipping through some of the letters as well.

“Fucking ancient. I found the first ones,” he said, and Kravitz perked his head up at that. Taako handed him two letters, and he was a little surprised to see his own. He guessed the fae had kept them as well. He couldn’t help laughing as he read through his old letter, grimacing a little at some of it.

“Wow, I really was not great at elvish,” he said, and Taako snorted.

“Nah, but you got better,” he said, and Kravitz supposed that was true. At this point they had both started to neglect their fishing poles, focused more on shorting through the old letters. Every so often Taako would check if there was a tug on his line, but otherwise it was something in the background.

“So, I know you said you were putting it all into ways we could understand, so like, when you talk about your asshole uncle you really mean…?” Kravitz asked, because this was something he’d been curious about for a while. Taako and Lup were twins, so they had to have some concept of family, but it also didn’t seem to quite fit with what they knew.

“Mostly just meant some dude who we had to live with for a while. Fae don’t have kids often, twins are practically fucking unheard of. Basically the whole court’s attention goes to raising them when they do,” he said, and Kravitz could at least understand the unpleasant laugh that left him this time, slumping forward someone to rest his chin on his knees. “They were  _ not _ fucking happy with all that work being a huge fucking waste.”

“You’re not a waste,” Kravitz countered immediately. Taako looked surprised, and Kravitz hoped it was just at the speed with which he said that and not because of the actual words. “I don’t know how anyone could consider you-  _ either _ of you to be a waste,” he added. Something about the soft smile Taako gave him at that made his heart ache.

“Thanks Krav. It’s- I mean, like, just by fae standards we  _ were. _ Getting kicked out of the court is the biggest fuck up a fae can manage. But the thing is I don’t actually give a shit if they wasted their time and energy on us,” Taako said, and it sounded like the truth.

“Good,” Kravitz said, not really sure what else to say. Before he could think of anything Taako’s eyes were drawn over to where Kravitz had set his fishing pole standing up in sock rocks.

“Looks like you got something,” he said.

“Oh shit, what do I do?” he asked, grabbing the rod and yeah, there was definitely something pulling at the line. Taako started talking him through winding it back in a little at a time, and soon enough he had actually managed to pull up the fish. It was small, and Kravitz snorted in amusement as Taako carefully unhooked it from the lure.

“I don’t suppose that one’s big enough to eat, is it?” he asked. The fae looked just as amused, and it looked like he did something with the fish before putting it back.

“Nah, figure most of the ones here will be catch and release,” he said, and Kravitz nodded.

“Did you magic it somehow?” he asked, and Taako shrugged at the question.

“Nothing much, should grow pretty damn big though. Figure that should make up for getting a hook stuck in its face,” he said, and Kravitz snorted. He couldn’t argue with that logic though.

They kept fishing for a little while long, occasionally stopping to look through more old letters, and it was just _ nice.  _ Even if the actual fishing part wasn’t exactly riveting Kravitz could imagine coming out here with Taako and doing this all the time. He  _ wanted _ to do this more.

“Are you getting hungry?” Taako asked, and it was about one in the afternoon now. Kravitz nodded, he was honestly planning on bringing up food soon.

“I could definitely eat,” he said, and Taako grinned widely at that. He quickly put his fishing pole to the side as he scrambled up to his feet.

“Awesome. Wait right here I’ll be back,” he said, and Kravitz figured his surprise showed on his face. Taako didn’t seem to care though, so he listened and watched as the fae ran back to the car. They couldn’t quite see the parking lot from their spot, and after a moment Kravitz heard his phone going off. He couldn’t be too surprised when he saw who was calling him.

“Everything okay?” he asked, not able to hide the smile in his voice.

“Your car’s locked,” Taako whined, and Kravitz didn't feel too bad for laughing at that.

“Would you like me to come unlock it for you?” he asked.

“Yes please,” Taako said. Kravitz still had a stubborn smile on his face as he started getting up.

“I’ll be right there,” he said, and then he turned towards the fishing rods. “You want me to bring the fishing stuff?” he asked, and Taako seemed to think it over for a moment before answer.

“Yeah sure, don’t think we were really planning on doing much more fishing,” he said, and Kravitz nodded. Gathering up the fishing supplies it didn’t take long to go meet Taako over at the car. He figured Taako must have snuck something for them to have for lunch, but he was a little surprised when Taako pulled a small basket out of the trunk.

“When did you put that in here?” he asked, but Taako waved away the question.

“Not important,” he said, and Kravitz was smiling despite rolling his eyes. “Anyway, I thought we could have like, a picnic for lunch. The internet said that’s a thing people do,” he added, and Kravitz paused at that. If Taako had to look them up then they probably weren’t a popular thing for fae. He doubted Taako was thinking of any sort of connotation two people having a picnic together in a park might have. Despite that Kravitz couldn’t help feeling hopeful.

“Oh, yes that uh, that sounds lovely Taako,” he managed to say. Taako just grinned even wider, and they made their way back over to the shady spot by the lake. Kravitz couldn’t even be surprised anymore when there was more food in the basket than could have actually fit in there. It was all pretty traditional picnic fair, sandwiches and potato and macaroni salads and the like. Somehow Taako managed to make even such simple food taste absolutely incredible.

As they ate Kravitz tried to get into that easy comfort he’d fallen into when they were fishing. He couldn’t though, his mind starting to catch back up with him and every hopeful thought about how much  _ effort _ Taako seemed to be putting into this day made his heart feel like it was learning to beat for the first time, or something equally as sickeningly romantic.

“Taako, it’s- I’ve been having a lovely day,” he said as they finished up eating. He didn’t know where he was trying to go with this, but he was definitely trying to go somewhere. Before he could though Taako just nodded, and he was already poking at his phone again.

“Sweet. I was thinking we could do this next then,” the fae said, holding up his phone.

“Oh,” Kravitz said, and he supposed his voice and face showed his surprise. ”You want to go to the movies?” he asked, he asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, I was looking for like a concert or something but it was knda confusing. Figured a movie would be easier, unless you’re like, tired or something. We don’t gotta if you’re not feeling it, we can probably head back home now,” he said, and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“No, no that’s fine. I’d love to,” he said, and it was so hard not to lean over and kiss Taako was he smiled like that. Somehow he managed to resist the temptation, starting to drive instead.

The whole time they made their way over to the movie theater Kravitz was wondering if Taako would actually mind if he kissed him or not. He wanted to give him time, he didn’t want to move too fast after everything he’d just gone though.

It was hard to tell if he was reading these signals right.

He let Taako pick the movie, and it was hard not to try and analyze his choice at this point. Was he picking a romantic comedy because it had the brightest and most eye catching poster? Because it was a comedy? Because it was a  _ romance? _

He had no idea, and Kravitz spent the whole movie wondering if he should take Taako’s hand again or not. He didn’t actually end up absorbing any of the movie, and by the time it was over and they were leaving Kravitz really wished he’d gone and held Taako’s hand two hours ago.

“So, what did you think?” Kravitz asked. It was too bright when they left the movie theater, although it was definitely getting later in the day. The light was always too much when you left one in the day though, and it looked like Taako had to blink for a minute before processing his question.

“Oh yeah, it seemed alright. Not entirely realistic,” he said, and Kravitz nodded.

“They never are, at least not romantic comedies,” he said, kind of relieved that Taako didn’t seem intent on getting into any sort of in depth discussion on the movie. Kravitz didn’t know how he could explain just how distracted he’d been during the thing if he did.

“Did you have anything else you wanted to do today? Or do you want to start back to the house?” Kravitz asked, and Taako shook his head.

“Should probably head home and make sure Lulu and Barold haven’t broken themselves with their inability to admit fucking anything,” Taako said, and Kravitz laughed at that. The laugh was maybe a little forced though, because well, he really wasn’t in any sort of position to be making fun of Lup and Barry right now.

“Right, no that’s a good idea,” he said, starting to head back towards the car. He didn’t manage to get very far before Taako’s voice stopped him.

“Krav?” he asked. Turning back around, he hadn’t noticed that Taako hadn’t started to follow him. He was still standing by the steps of the movie theater, and his hands were balled up into fists and it was hard to read his expression. Before Kravitz could ask if everything was okay though, the nearly blank look on his face shifted into a determined glare, and he reeled one hand back.

Kravitz had no time to react before a small object pelted him in the forehead, barely managing to catch it after it pegged off of him.

“Taako!” he shouted, and somehow his surprise came out as incredulous laughter as he held his forehead with one hand and whatever the fae had thrown at him in the other.

“A gift!” Taako yelled back, and his ears were pointed straight up, his whole form an obvious picture of nerves and embarrassment.

“Did you have to throw it at my  _ face _ though?” he asked, slowly managing to bring his laughter back under control. Taako started walking over to him now, and Kravitz had no idea why he looked so nervous.

“Yes, I did,” he said, and Kravitz supposed he should probably be mad at that. Instead he was still laughing as he rubbed his forehead and actually looked down at whatever it was Taako threw.

And then the laughter immediately died in his throat.

“Uh,” he said, looking at the small velvet box. He turned it over a few times in his hands, trying to think of some sort of explanation for what else it could possibly be. Then he opened it and any potential other options died as he took in the engagement ring inside.

_ “Taako?” _ he managed to choke out after what felt like way too long just staring at the thing. It was- well it was beautiful. An elegant silver band with small blue sapphires leading up to one large circular one in the center. It was definitely something could see himself wearing in a few years to let the world know exactly how in love he was. 

Except he was  _ twenty three  _ (which suddenly didn’t feel like that much of an adult at all) and Taako had been here for  _ two weeks _ and they hadn’t even talked about  _ dating _ yet let alone  _ this. _

“The uh- the dude said it was all real, and I made sure to check that shit. Don’t ask where I got the money from though,” he said, and he still looked so scared and  _ fuck _ . Kravitz didn’t want to break his heart.

But also, this was insane.

“Taako, that’s- I’m so sorry, but don’t you think this is uh, a little fast?” he asked. As he did he reached out to hold his hand, because he didn't want him to get the wrong idea. He expected Taako to look disappointed, but instead he looked even more determined, just barely squeezing Kravitz’s hand back.

“Then go slower,” he said, and then his expression shifted to something almost pleading. “Just not  _ too _ slow, okay?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Is it… can I kiss you?” he asked, still struggling to process what was happening but Taako was so close and sure he just asked to go slow but Kravitz had been wanting to kiss him since he was fourteen.

_ “Please,” _ Taako said, like he’d been waiting all day for Kravitz to ask him that. Like he’d been waiting just as long as Kravitz had. So he didn’t make him wait any longer, slipping the box with the engagement ring into his pocket so he could cup Taako’s face without letting go of his hand. The fae didn’t move, so Kravitz leaned forward to close the distance between them.

As soon as he’d pressed his lips to Taako’s he was no longer standing placidly in front of him. Instead the hand that wasn’t holding Kravitz’s was suddenly bunched up in the front of his shirt, pulling him closer as Taako deepened the kiss.

It turned out the sharp teeth didn’t hurt, although Kravitz got the feeling they absolutely could if Taako wanted them to.

Kravitz felt breathless in just about every way imaginable when they finally parted. He would have laughed at how dazed and starry eyed Taako looked right now, except Kravitz knew he couldn't possibly look any better.

_ “The court found out we fell in love with you and was super pissed that we chose you over them so we weren’t allowed to tell you,”  _ Taako blurted out, the words coming in a rush. That combined with the fact that Kravitz wasn’t at his sharpest right now left him standing there blinking for a moment.

“What?” he asked, and he wouldn’t have blame Taako for being annoyed at his lack of brain power right now. Kravitz really did appreciate the fact that he just laughed though, pulling him back into a significantly tamer kiss.

“I wanted to say something since I got here my dude. The court’s a bunch of fucking assholes and cursed me so that I couldn’t,” he said, and there was so much relief in Taako's voice as he spoke. Now it clicked in Kravitz’s head, his eyes widening in understanding.

“Oh,” he said, suddenly a lot of things making sense. That was why they had left. Kravitz couldn't speak as he processed that fact, that  _ they _ were what the twins had decided was more important than staying where they'd lived their whole life. More important than an eternity. Taako nodded, starting to look sheepish again.

“Yeah, so I had to uh, think of some other way to get it through your thick skull,” he said, and Kravitz felt his face heat up more than it already was somehow

“Right, this,” he said, pulling the box with the engagement ring back out of his pocket. After thinking a moment, he carefully placed it back into Taako’s hand. “Why don’t you keep this for now? It’s- you just got here after all, there’s no reason to rush into all that yet,” he said, and Kravitz was relieved when Taako nodded.

“Sure thing. We got all the time in the world,” he said with a grin, disappearing the box off somewhere with a flick of his wrist. Which-

They were still in the movie theater parking lot. Right.

“Uh, maybe we should head back home now,” he said, and Taako seemed to realize his slip up, wincing and nodding quickly.

“Sounds good babe,” he said. They had to let go of each others hands as they got into the car again, but Kravitz wasn’t disappointed this time. They had plenty of time for all of that later.

He hadn’t quite started the car yet when a thought occurred to him. 

“Wait, Taako you said we, right? So you and Lup were both cursed?” he asked, and the fae nodded.

“Yeah, there was uh, this whole scene in the court where we  _ kinda _ confessed to falling in love with a couple of mortals. Sort of a big deal, very not allowed,” he said, and hearing that did a lot of funny things to Kravitz’s chest. Taako was  _ in love _ with him. It was hard not getting completely lost in that thought. Still, he had a point to this conversation.

“So Lup is under the same rules? Which is why you said she won’t confess first?” he asked, and Taako nodded, looking a little confused. Without explaining anything Kravitz pulled out his phone, quickly getting Barry up in his contacts. It didn’t ring very long before he picked up.

“Hey Kravitz, is everything okay? We thought you guys were just going out for breakfast, it’s like 4 o’clock,” Barry said.

“Barry you need to kiss Lup,” he said, not answering his question. In the passenger seat Taako broke down into laughter, but Kravitz could still hear Barry sputtering on the other end of the line.

“That’s- I don’t- what are you  _ talking _ about?” he managed after a moment.

“Barry, trust me. You need to kiss her right now, is she there with you?” he asked.

“Yes? But I don’t- that’s not- fuck you! I’m hanging up now!” Barry snapped, his flustered confusion quickly flipping into indignant anger.

“Barry I’m telling you this for your own good as your brother. Barry-” Kravitz tried, but he wasn’t quite able to keep himself from laughing, especially when he heard the tone indicating that he had definitely hung up.

“You think he’ll listen?” Taako asked, and Kravitz shrugged.

“I guess we’ll see when we get home,” he said, and Taako nodded, his grin all sharp teeth. Kravitz started the car, and there was a fifty-fifty chance Lup and Barry would be making out when they got home. If not, Kravitz figured it wouldn’t take them too much longer. And even if it did, they had plenty of time.

“Hey Krav?” Taako asked as they started driving.

“Yeah?”

“I fucking love you,” he said, sounding so giddy to actually say it. It occurred to Kravitz that every time Taako had tried to say something and couldn’t, he’d been trying to say those words.

“I love you too Taako.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the official last chapter of this fic! The next chapter that'll go up is gonna be a fun little blupjeans/epilogue thing i think, so still look out for that. This fic ended up being so much longer than I expected it to be when I started, but I'm not complaining about that, since it was so fun to write. 
> 
> also, I spent most of the time writing this while listening to [All This And Heaven Too by Florence and the Machine,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNE2meQCI-Q) it is a good song. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	9. Chapter 9

“What was that about?” Lup asked as Barry quickly hung up on Kravitz, and he was trying not to look as flustered as he felt. He knew he was not doing anywhere near as good of a job at it as he would have liked though.

“I don’t know, just those two being weird as always,” he said, which was true. He had no idea what had spurred  _ that _ comment on, or at least no idea why he would say it out of the blue like that.

“I still can’t believe they just took off for the whole day like that,” Lup said, and Barry nodded in agreement, heading back over to where she was on the couch. He hadn’t been all that worried, if anything it was a good sign. He’d been pretty surprised by Kravitz dropping the fact that they were heading out as they were leaving without any other sort of warning, and Lup seemed just as bewildered.

“I mean Kravitz is terrible at time, so I guess they could have just gotten distracted,” he said, although he didn’t actually believe that all that much. Lup snorted, and Barry told himself he was being normal as he went and sat down with her. He was trying not to get too into his own head about everything, but that was a little difficult with Kravitz’s fucking demand blaring in his head.

“Nah, Taako definitely had something planned. He’d been all weirdly excited for like a week and I couldn’t place why,” Lup said, and that made sense. Barry raised an eyebrow at that, an amused look on his face.

“What, like some sort of grand romantic gesture? Is that really Taako’s style?” he asked. Lup shrugged, a somewhat contemplative look on her face as she seemed to think the question over.

“Maybe. Not usually his go to I don’t think, but I definitely wouldn’t put it past him,” she said. Barry chuckled at that, because she was right. He could absolutely see Taako deciding to go all out on something instead of being simple about it.

“What’s- uh, hm,” Barry said, the question coming out before he could really think about it. He didn’t manage to stop himself fast enough, Lup looking at him curiously.

“What’s what?” she asked, and Barry could feel his face getting hotter again. It was a miracle he managed to get through any sort of conversation with Lup without dissolving into mush. He was pretty sure the only reason he managed was because if he died he wouldn’t be able to talk to her anymore, and that was somehow worse than the constant embarrassment.

It didn’t help that Kravitz’s instructions were still ringing around his his head though, despite how much he was trying to get past them.

“What’s your style? Like uh, do you like the whole big, romantic gesture thing? Or uh, something simpler?” he somehow managed to ask. Lup was obviously surprised by the question, and even though they’d known each other for ages now Barry couldn’t help but be worried that he crossed some sort of line. She was quiet for a moment, and Barry was too busy internally panicking to have any idea what she was thinking.

“Giving or receiving?” she asked after a moment, and Barry blinked at that, not expecting her to actually put that much thought into it.

“Both?” he said with a shrug, because this was- this was just casual. A casual conversation between two friends.

“I mean, I guess I wouldn’t turn down some grand gesture, if it was coming from the right person. Kinda prefer things happening a bit more naturally though I guess. There’s something to be said for simple,” she said, and Barry was surprised by how earnest she sounded. But then again, he also wasn’t surprised, because he’d never met someone as genuine as Lup before. Somehow not being able to tell him what she actual was throughout most of their friendship didn’t hamper that any.

“Yeah, same here I think,” Barry said, and it was impossible for him to tell if there was actually some tension happening right now, or if he was imagining it. He was probably imagining it.

“Wanna fuck with Taako and Kravitz?” he asked suddenly, wanting to do  _ something _ to break the imaginary tension in the room. It seemed to work, a large, sharp grin immediately spreading across Lup's face.

“Always,” she said, and Barry laughed at that. God, how he got so lucky to be able to know Lup was beyond him.

“Okay then uh, what do you think are the chances that they’ll be dating by the time they come home?” he asked, and this was probably a bad idea. This was going to end up being awkward at best and actively painful at worst, but Lup would turn it down in that case. Come up with a better way to mess with their respective brothers.

“If we’re lucky? Fucking a hundred percent,” she said, and Barry snorted at that. He kind of had the feeling that something was going on with them, he just wasn’t sure if they had actually made anything official yet. He knew Kravitz though and if disappearing for a whole damn day with Taako didn’t end up constituting some sort of date, he didn’t know what would.

This was a bad idea, but it was, well, it was one way to maybe test the waters. Barry knew he couldn’t throw himself out there, couldn’t just fucking kiss Lup like Kravitz told him to, but he could joke. The twins liked jokes.

“What if we made them think we’re dating too?”

—

Lup liked to think that she knew Barry pretty well. She wouldn’t have thrown her entire life away for someone she didn’t care about with her whole heart (okay, that wasn’t true, she probably would have. It wouldn’t have been so effortless though, not able to do it standing there with so much pride). So she imagined there wasn’t a lot of stuff that Barry could do that would completely throw her for a loop.

That being said, the idea he’d thrown out there certainly threw her off guard for a moment. She didn’t- she knew Taako was probably right, that her and Barry were just dancing around each other. Even with that though she figured it would take a while. She wasn’t expecting Barry to jump from ‘what kind of romantic confession would you prefer’ to ‘let’s pretend to date to mess with Taako and Kravitz.’

She tried not to let her surprise show though, but she couldn’t quite keep her ears from sticking straight up. Her damn ears were always giving her away, she wished she had as much control over them as Taako did, but she did not. He wasn't even all that great at it, he just happened to be a little better than her.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked, hoping her recovery was fast enough not to make Barry suspicious. His face had turned a delightful shade of red, and that was something Lup had enjoyed a lot since getting to hang out in person. It was so easy to fluster him and sometimes he went and flustered himself, and she wasn’t exactly stone cold either but she was fairly sure it was still harder to notice with her.

“I didn’t actually think that far ahead, I just kinda said it,” he said, and Lup laughed. Fuck, he was adorable. Lup knew she told Taako that she would be fine with waiting, that she wouldn’t mind taking it slow and just enjoying her time with him, but she certainly wasn’t going to complain if they skipped all that.

“Well, what’s something that let’s people know right off the bat that two people are dating?” she asked, and it wasn’t like Lup didn’t have her own ideas. She could certainly think of a  _ lot _ of things they could do to trick Taako and Kravitz into thinking they were dating. A lot of things that she was fairly sure would also break the curse on her, so she couldn’t actually be the one to suggest them. She tried to play into it though, grinning as she leaned into Barry’s space as much as she could manage.

“Lots of things? Uh, holding hands, kissing, that uh- that sort of stuff,” he said.

“Sounds good,” she said, and the only thing helping her keep her composure was seeing how much Barry was struggling to keep his. As long as she could pretend to have a modicum more of a handle on the situation, she could act pretty damn competent.

“When, uh… I mean, they’re heading home now, should, um,” Barry stuttered out, and Lup was fairly sure if she didn’t have this curse on her she would have reached over and kissed him already. As it was though she had to wait for him to make the first move.

“Now’s fine,” she said, and Barry looked almost terrified as he nodded. She could actually see him swallow nervously, and she wished she could reach out and grab his hand. It was probably clammy as anything, but she kind of doubted she would mind.

“Alright, just as- just to fuck with Taako and Kravitz,” he said, and Lup nodded, still grinning.

“Of course,” she said. She couldn’t really do anything as Barry leaned forward, nervously reaching a hand up to cup her cheek. She tried to tell herself that only added to her aloof appeal, letting him sweat it out and do all the work.

She would have fucking jumped at the chance to kiss him first, but if she was going to be forced to go about it this way she might as well try and embrace it.

The kiss was quick, it obvious how nervous Barry was. He was barely touching her, and Lup wanted to move forward. She wanted to press into his hand and deepen the kiss and let him know without a shadow of a doubt that this was okay. That she wanted this as so much more than just a dumb prank.

But she couldn’t.

When Barry pulled away, Lup had not managed to move an inch. She tried to open her mouth, to tell him how she felt. To tell him about the curse, to say anything to explain why she had sat there like an idiot instead of kissing him back like she wanted to.

But her mouth wouldn’t open.

She didn’t know what sort of expression she was making, but from the poorly concealed devastation on Barry’s face, she doubted it was anything good.

“This was a bad idea,” he said quickly, pulling away from her. Lup didn’t even realize she had tried to reach out to grab him until she felt herself straining against the magical hold keeping her in place.

“No,” she managed finally, because she had to say something and the last thing she wanted was for him to think she actively wasn’t interested.

Unless he wasn’t either. He fucking kissed her, the curse shouldn’t still be in effect. That should have been enough to show that he loved her, right?

Except he hadn’t kissed her with that pretense. He kissed her for a joke.

“We just didn’t do it right,” she said, and she couldn’t blame him for looking confused by that. She was barely making sense to herself, of course it would seem insane to him. There shouldn’t be any right way about it, if they really were doing it for fun and nothing else.

“What do you mean?” he asked, and this time when Lup failed to speak it felt like it was less because of the curse and more due to the fact that she had no idea what she was doing.

“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. She really liked the hoodies they had here, and right now she wanted to pull the hood of the one she was wearing down over her face as much as possible. “We just did it wrong,” she added, mumbling mostly.

“Do you… want to try again?” Barry asked, and he still sounded confused, and worried, and a little hurt. It was hard not to get discouraged after that, but Lup told herself that she knew Barry better than that. She knew his stupid smile and his nervous laugh and the way he looked at her the same way she looked at him when he was turned away. None of that went away because some curse had the nerve to have specific wording.

“It wouldn’t hurt,” she said, but that only got Barry to frown more.

“But do you  _ want _ to?” he pressed, and it made sense. Of course he would want to double check that she was really on board with this, especially after the complete apparent lack of interest she’d shown before. There was a short moment where Lup was afraid she wouldn’t be able to answer, but then she managed to nod.

“I want to do it right,” she said. Barry still looked absolutely befuddled, but at least he was smiling a little bit again. It wasn’t fair just how earnest he was, how careful he was to make sure he wasn’t hurting her.

She could understand Taako’s frustration and impatience now, having had the chance at being rid of this damn curse dangled right in front of her like that.

“Okay, and uh, what exactly is right?” he asked, and that was a good fucking question. It was also a very hard one to answer with the limited tools she had. She very much appreciated the way Barry didn’t try and pressure her any, instead sitting quietly as she tried to get her words together.

“Naturally. Simple,” she said, and she knew Barry was smart enough to remember the conversation they’d just had. “Just- don’t talk beforehand, okay?” she added. Barry’s face was beet red as he nodded.

“Okay,” he said, and then he practically flinched. “I mean, shit- sorry, I don’t-” he stumbled over his words, and Lup couldn’t help laughing. Fuck, she loved how easily he could make her laugh, even when he wasn’t trying. “I’m gonna shut up now,” he finished, and Lup grinned at that.

“Sounds good,” she said. With that, Barry moved back closer to her, once again cupping her face gently before leaning in.

And then he stopped, pulling back suddenly.

“No, no you’re right. This isn’t it,” he said, and now  _ Lup _ was confused. It looked like Barry had just realized something, but she had no idea what. He was standing up now, kind of pacing around.

“It’s not?” she asked, and Barry shook his head.

“No, it’s not. It’s- okay, I got it, stay right here,” Barry said, before rushing out of the room. A few seconds later Lup could hear him running back, sticking his head back through the doorway. “Actually, come with me. I can’t move a piano,” he said, and Lup burst out laughing. She got up to follow Barry back to his room, and she couldn’t get rid of the stubborn smile on her face. She still had no idea what he was planning, but she was no less delighted as she splayed herself out on his bed as he quickly got his piano in order.

“I didn’t realize you still played the piano,” she said casually. Barry nodded, and she wondered if humans could get their skin stuck all red if they blushed for too long. It would be pretty damn funny if they could.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really want to do anything with it, not like Kravitz with his music. It’s kind of something just for me, ya know?” he said, and Lup nodded. She felt like she did know.

It looked like Barry had finished setting up whatever he needed to with his piano, Lup wasn’t too clear on how it worked. She had learned a couple instruments growing up, but not that one.

“I’ve been actually trying to think of a good time to do this, I wrote it years ago in case, well in case we ever got to meet I guess. Wasn’t really thinking about it, it just sort of happened without much thought,” he said, and Lup nodded.

“Naturally,” she supplied, and the smile he gave her was softer than it had any right to be.

“Yeah,” Barry said simply, and then he turned back towards the piano and started playing her a song.

Lup knew beautiful music. She grew up in a fae court, all she ever fucking heard was beautiful, perfect music. The song Barry played was no doubt beautiful too, but it was more than that. It wasn’t just there to be pretty and enticing.

It was so fucking earnest. Hesitant and determined, every nervous slip he made a small, honest stumble that he only seemed to double down on afterwards. It was easy to see the way he so clearly poured his heart into it.

The confession in the music as clear and simple as any words or kiss could possibly be.

When he finished Lup tried not to show the way she was blinking back tears. She was lying down on the bed, staring straight up at the ceiling.

“Hey babe, come over here a minute,” she said into the silence. When he sat down next to her, it was easy as anything to reach up and pull him down until he was just an inch from her face. He didn’t resist in the slightest, and nothing was stopping her. “Thanks, that was perfect,” she said, before pulling him down the rest of the way into a kiss. It still started out hesitant, but it wasn’t long before Barry leaned more into it, crawling fully onto the bed with her.

When they finally pulled away to do pesky things like breathing, Lup figured she should probably explain everything to Barry. Let him know exactly what was going on.

But then Barry pulled her into another kiss, and well, she figured they’d have plenty of time for things like explanations and curses later.

The next time they parted, Barry had a puzzled look on his face. Before Lup could ask what was up though he explained.

“Kravitz and Taako should have been back by now,” he said, and Lup almost wanted to laugh at that. Not in a bad way, just delighted by how simple this all was. How everything and yet nothing had changed at the same time.

“I didn’t hear them come in,” she said, and Barry pushed himself back so that Lup could properly sit up again.

“We should probably go check,” he said, and she nodded in agreement. Heading back, they didn’t see them anywhere in the house. Lup could always contact Taako in her mind if he was close by, but she didn’t try yet.

Peaking out the front window, Lup burst out laughing. It quickly caught Barry’s attention, who came rushing over from where he’d been looking out into the backyard.

“You find them?” he asked. Lup nodded, letting the blinds close as she leaned back.

“They’re making out in Kravitz’s car,” she said. Barry snorted at that, coming to join her when she went to flop on the couch. It was nice, getting to lay slumped up against him so easily.

“Of course they are,” Barry said, shaking his head and letting one of his arms wrap around Lup’s shoulders. “I wonder if they think they’re being stealthy or if they just got distracted,” he added.

“Both equally likely,” she said, then she started grinning as she tilted her head up to look at Barry. “You still up for fucking with them?” she asked, and the smile he gave her was as genuine as it was delighted.

“Yeah, I think I’d be down for that,” he said, and it was so easy to reach over and intertwine Barry’s hand with her own. She had no intention of letting go anytime soon.

“How far back do you think we can convince them we’ve been dating for?” she asked, and Barry laughed.

“What, you mean like, before you even came here?” he asked, and Lup laughed even more at that.

“Sure, fuck it. Go big or go home,” she said, thinking that over. “I think we could maybe manage a year. Anything more than that might be pushing it,” she said, and Barry nodded in agreement.

“Yeah alright, sounds good to me,” he said, and Lup was so fucking happy to have someone who went along with this dumb idea without any hesitation. Someone who’s reaction to hearing that if he tried magic he might blow himself up was excitement at the idea of creating explosions with magic.

“So, what caused the sudden shift then? Cause I’m not stopping all this if you’re wondering,” she asked, and Barry thought that over for a moment.

“It’s our anniversary,” he said, and Lup didn’t think her smile could get any wider.

“Fuck, I love you,” she said, and it was shocking how easy it was, but it also wasn’t.

Barry jolted when Taako and Kravitz suddenly came slamming into the house, but Lup didn’t even flinch.

“Hey guess what Krav and I are engaged!”

“No fuck you, today’s our one year anniversary! Pick another day!” Lup shouted back at her brother, and then there was a very long moment where everyone processed what had just been said.

The resulting shouting did end up dying down eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we are done entirely now! had to have some fun blupjeans before we could end. 
> 
> Taako and Kravitz also decided to fuck with Lup and Barry by announcing that they were engaged. By the end of the resulting argument no one was quite sure what was true and what wasn't, including the people telling the original lies. 
> 
> This was a very fun fic to do! I'm glad so many people had fun along with me. As always, thank y'all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
